Dawn Anderson, Maricopa, Arizona, a real estate broker and owner of Maricopa Properties, LLC, a property management company, was indicted and charged with theft, forgery, and fraud schemes and practices.
Maricopa Properties, LLC was the subject of an audit, which revealed a shortage in the company’s statutorily mandated trust account.
As a real estate broker engaged in the business of property management, Anderson is licensed and regulated by the Arizona Department of Real Estate (“ADRE”). She is required by law to maintain and be responsible for a trust account containing funds belonging to the owners of the rental properties managed by her. The property owners are the legal beneficiaries of this trust account.
In the most recent Broker Audit Declaration filed by Anderson with the ADRE, she indicated that the trust account was in balance, meaning that all owner money that should be in the account was in fact in the account. However the audit determined that more than $270,000 of owner funds entrusted to her was missing as of January 31, 2013.
Attorney General Tom Horne announced the indictment.
