By Mike Harris Monday, July 7th, 2025

A Royal Arroyo escrow firm is suing its former escrow manager for allegedly embezzling $545,557 from it.

Opus Escrow’s suit also names a second defendant, Qualia Labs, a digital real estate closing platform.

Qualia had a contract to provide Opus with accounting, reconciliations, fraud protection, and more, according to the civil complaint filed in San Luis Obispo County Superior Court June 25.

Former escrow manager Beverly Stickler’s “conduct was calculated and malicious, with the intent to harm plaintiff,” Opus’s suit says.

“She acted with conscious disregard for plaintiff and the clients plaintiff was entrusted to serve during their real estate transactions,” the complaint says. 

The suit alleges fraud by concealment, negligence, breach of contract and conversion.

Attorneys for the parties in the case could not immediately be reached for comment.

Opus hired Stickler in July 2022, according to the suit.

Her duties included overseeing all training, compliance with regulations, reconciliation, and trust balances, the complaint says.

Strickland had access to all escrow accounts and oversaw the reconciliation by Qualia, according to the suit.

Reconciliation is the process of verifying that all funds held in escrow accounts are accounted for and that the records of the funds match.

As early as January 2023, Stickler began transferring money from open escrow accounts into a closed escrow account, the complaint alleges.

“She created false entries, such as receipts, to allow for there to be an excess amount of money in order to balance the account with Qualia when she transferred the money to the closed escrow account,” the suit alleges.

Stickler then wrote checks to herself from the closed account, according to the suit. 

She used the Opus chief executive officer’s digital signature without the CEO’s permission or knowledge to issue the checks, the complaint alleges. 

If the bank account did not balance with an escrow account, Qualia and its representatives would contact Stickler, the suit contends.

Stickler, on numerous occasions, provided an excuse and Qualia would create an “exception” to bypass the discrepancy in the bank account, the complaint alleges. 

Stickler committed such fraud and embezzlement for nearly two years, the suit alleges.

Qualia, however, never caught her fraudulent actions, despite a number of red flags, according to the suit.

It was not until Jan. 2, (2025) that a representative of Qualia alerted Opus about suspicious activity, the complaint says. 

Opus then determined that Stickler had allegedly embezzled $545,557 in escrow funds from it, according to the suit.

She has since been fired, the suit says.

The suit seeks compensatory damages in an amount to be determined at trial and punitive damages against Stickler.