July 27, 2022 – Ventura County, Ca.
As if housing costs throughout Southern California weren’t onerous enough, the notable arrest of a licensed real estate professional who stands accused of 18 separate counts of embezzlement involving the theft of more than $1,000,000 in cash might give any home buyer
a moment of pause.
According to Ventura County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Sgt. Jason Cantrall, the investigation into the activities of “long-term employee” Dana Teri Hiscock Vines took place over several months and involved research into the financial transactions of the Thousand Oaks office of Aviara Real Estate dating back a full decade to July of 2012. “Responsible for the financial business matters” of the real estate firm, Vines was the company’s Operations Manager and allegedly “used her position of trust” to skim money off sales transactions and broker fees over a period of several years between 2007 and 2020.
It was on March 20, 2020 when company officers discovered her criminal activities that occurred over the prior eight years and promptly terminated her employment. At that point, the VCSD Financial Crimes Unit, working in concert with the Thousand Oaks Police Department, starting digging through the Aviara company records.
Vines was contacted at her residence in Malibu on the morning of July 26 th and was taken into custody. She was transported to Ventura County Jail, where she was booked on 18 counts of grand theft, with her bail set at $80,000.
