2 minute read
Sherri Miller, the former executive director of the Ruidoso Board of Realtors, is facing nearly 400 charges of embezzlement and forgery stemming from allegations that she skimmed at least $90,000 from the organization.
According to the Las Cruces Sun-News, Miller is due in court this week for arraignment on 197 counts of embezzlement and 188 related counts of forgery relating to accusations that she routinely and repeatedly embezzled funds from the New Mexico Realtor group she led.
From the Las Cruces Sun-News:
The exact amount Miller is accused of stealing is not specified in the indictment, and prosecutor Stephen Ochoa declined Friday to say how much money the charges added up to. But the 79-page document lists 158 counts of embezzlement of more than $500, and another 39 counts for more than $250 between March 2011 and November 2015. That means the amount involved is at least $90,000 and could be more.
Miller is charged with more than four years of frequent embezzlements beginning March 18, 2011, and continuing through Nov. 11, 2015, shortly before it became known that the board of Realtors was missing a large sum. Hardly a month went by without at least one alleged theft during that period. In many months there were several, and in numerous instances there were more than one in a single day.
What’s even crazier about the allegations against Miller is that Miller’s predecessor with the Ruidoso Board of Realtors was also accused, and subsequently convicted, of embezzling from the organization.
Again from the Las Cruces Sun-News:
The allegations against Miller are all the more shocking because less than two years before Miller’s first alleged embezzlement, her predecessor at the board of Realtors, Carol Lester, was charged with embezzling more than $100,000. Lester was sentenced the following year to three years in prison with an additional six years suspended.
