Former Brentwood Escrow manager Barbara ‘Bobbi’ Lynn Brown has been charged with allegedly embezzling money and property while employed at the Pacific Palisades branch office, which recently closed after being in the community since 1994. Brown, 48, faces one felony charge of grand theft by embezzlement on or between January 17, 2007 and August 10, 2007, said Shiara Davila-Morales, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office. Brown pleaded not guilty at her arraignment last August 22. Brentwood Escrow originally filed the police report accusing Brown of embezzlement, said Officer Sam Park with the Los Angeles Police Department media relations office. The Department of Corporations, which licenses and regulates a variety of businesses, also conducted an investigation of Brown after she applied on July 6, 2007 for an escrow agent’s license to start her own company, Onlinescrow, Inc. ‘The special examination was commenced after the Department of Corporations received information from Brentwood that Brown had been involved in numerous suspicious transactions involving trust funds, which Brentwood believed had created a trust account shortage,’ according to documents issued by the department. Based on a review of Brentwood’s books and records, the department found that Brown made at least 47 unauthorized disbursements totaling $190,581 to herself and others such as her mother, brother and landscaper. She allegedly made an unauthorized disbursement to her landscaper in the amount of $10,000 on July 3, 2007 and $38,159 on August 10, 2007. She purportedly made an unauthorized disbursement to her brother, Warren Brown, of $1,600 on January 17, 2007 and $3,000 the next day. The department found that she falsified documents to hide her actions. She hid an unauthorized disbursement of trust funds in the amount of $1,110 to her mother, Frances Brown, ‘by describing it on the closing statement as having been paid for cleaning services’ and of $3,000 to herself ‘by describing it simply as a disbursement paid to Wells Fargo Bank on the closing statement with a corresponding escrow fee discount to offset the disbursement.’ As a result of its investigation, the Department of Corporations denied Brown’s request for an escrow agent’s license for Onlinescrow on December 18, 2008 and barred Brown from ‘any position of employment, management or control of any escrow agent.’ The department is now sharing its findings with the District Attorney’s office, said department spokesman Mark Leyes. Yesterday, a new date was set for Brown’s preliminary hearing, which will be held at the Airport Courthouse, Department 142. The date was not available at press time. Brentwood Escrow owner Diana Stewart founded the business 30 years ago and also had an office on San Vicente Boulevard in Brentwood, which she closed in March. She retired in December and closed the Pacific Palisades branch, located at 970 Monument St. Charlene ‘Charlie’ Schutz, who assumed Brown’s management position, has since opened a new escrow company, Perennial Escrow, in the former location of Brentwood Escrow, with Pacific Palisades resident Bud Petrick.
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