By Mike Woitalla
The last time we reported aboutembezzlement at a youth soccer club or league, the figures were $40,000 and $15,000.
Now comes news from Boston Globe Magazine of an alleged $195,000rip-off at the Framingham United Soccer Club, which serves 1,200 children between the ages of 5 and 18. A club treasurer and longtime volunteer is accused of using the club debit card for personalexpenses at liquor stores and restaurants, during a vacation, and to make daily purchases at Dunkin’ Donuts.
Reporter
“Part of the problem is that big youth sports organizations are swimming in cash. In 2013 in Massachusetts, 150registered nonprofits running youth soccer programs reported more than $25 million in receipts to the Massachusetts attorney general. That figure doesn’t take into account the for-profit soccerprograms.”
Nationwide, youth nonprofits of all kinds of sports pull in between $7 billion and $9 billion in participation fees in clubs, leagues, and tournaments, according to theNational Center for Charitable Statistics.
Levey Friedman quotes Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan’s advice for youth sports organizations:
“Weencourage organizations to implement internal controls to help prevent theft including having two signatures on checks over a determined amount, reviewing monthly bank statements for inaccuracies orlarge withdrawals, and restricting the use of an organization credit card.”
U.S U-20 women fall to Japan
The U.S. U-20 women’s national team opened the 2015 U-20 Women’s NTC Invitational in Carson, Calif., with a 3-0 loss to Japan.
The defeat marked the first loss of the year against a nationalteam opponent for the Michelle French-coached U-20s, who won the La Manga tournament in Spain with wins over Norway (2-0), the Netherlands (2-0) and Sweden (2-0).
The USAfaces Mexico on Thursday (9 pm ET) and Brazil on Saturday (6 pm ET). Brazil beat Mexico, 1-0, in their opener. All NTC Invitational games are streamed live at
June 2 in Carson, Calif.
USA 0 Japan 3. Goals: Mizutani (Kobayashi) 6, Hasegawa (Kobayashi) 38, Sumida 56.
USA — Murphy, Elliston,Riehl, Jacobs, Flores, Harvey (1 Buckingham, 46), Ogle (Roberts, 64), Canales Petersen, 72), Pugh (Hedge, 81), Harr (Sanchez, 17), Racioppi (DeMelo, 64).
Japan — Matsumoto,Miyagawa (Shimizu, 60), Norimatsu, Ichise, Kitagawa (Takemura, 72), Sumida, Mizutani (Sugita, 60), Miomiki (Miura, 72), Hasegawa (Sonoda, 86), Kobayashi, Shiraki (Seike, 60).
Referee: Reyna Fonseca.
Att.: 300
Roster: U.S. U-16 boys head to Florida
Co-coaches Shaun Tsakiris and Luchi Gonzalez have selected a 36-player U-16 boys national team roster to train June 7-14 at Sunrise in Ft.Lauderdale, Fla.
The U-16s played in two European tournaments earlier this year. In January at the 2015 Aegean Cup International Youth Tournament in Turkey, they beat Romania (2-0) and lost toNorway (0-2) and Turkey (0-1).
At the Netherlands International Tournament in March, they fell to Ireland, the Czech Republic and the Netherlands.
The current roster includes fourplayers from the Turkey trip and 11 from the Netherlands tourney.
U-16 boys national team
GOALKEEPERS (4): Xavier Kennedy (NewYork Red Bulls; Montclair, N.J.), Trey Miller (New England Revolution; Monson, Mass.), Brady Scott (De Anza Force; Petaluma, Calif.), Alec Smir (North Carolina Fusion; Greensboro, N.C.).
DEFENDERS (12): Raul Aguilera Jr. (Orlando City SC; Sanford, Fla.), Calvin Aroh (New England Revolution; Glastonbury, Conn.), Jordi Avila (Kendall SC; Haileah Gardens, Fla.), McKayEves (RSL Arizona; Casa Grande, Ariz.), Avionne Flanagan (Unattached; Nottingham, Md.), Harold Hanson (FC Golden State; Ontario, Calif.), Daniel Jones (New England Revolution; West Hartford, Conn.),Gabriel Kash (St. Louis Scott Gallagher Metro; Marshall, Ill.), Ian Lonergan (LA Galaxy; Manhattan Beach, Calif.), Mark McKenzie (Philadelphia Union; Bear, Del.), Aedan Stanley (St. Louis ScottGallagher Missouri; Columbia, Ill.), Lachlan Woolsey (Everton FC Westchester; New York, N.Y.).
MIDFIELDERS (12): Carlos Anguiano (Portland Timbers; Salem, Ore.), Jose Carranza(DC United; Manassas, Va.), Joshua Drack (RSL Arizona; Chandler, Ariz.), Jonathan Gonzalez (Monterrey; Santa Rosa, Calif.), Jean Paul Marin (New York Red Bulls; Rego Park, N.Y.), Alberto Martinez(Solar Chelsea SC; Arlington, Texas), Jose Morales (Capital Area Railhawks Academy; Sanford, N.C.), Gabriel Paniagua (Kendall SC; Miami, Fla.), Andrew Paoli (De Anza Force; San Jose, Calif.), OscarPenate (Chivas USA; Los Angeles, Calif.), Alan Salmeron (Chicago Magic PSG; Cicero, Ill.), Juan Pablo Torres (Georgia United; Lilburn, Ga.).
FORWARDS (8): Elijah Amo-Gottfried(Bethesda-Olney; Lothian, Md.), Wilson Harris (Real So Cal; Encino, Calif.), Justin McMaster (Philadelphia Union, King of Prussia, Pa.), Enoch Mushagalusa (Colorado Rapids, Denver, Colo.), JustinRennicks (New England Revolution; Hamilton, Mass.), Salvador Segura (Chava; Bell Gardens, Calif.), Hanif Wright (Unattached; Los Angeles, Calif.), Aristotle Zarris (RSL Arizona; Casa Grande,Ariz.).
After having been involved with youth soccer in essentially ALL areas (For profit and NOT for profit) for nearly 20 years, I am appalled that a District Attorney, whether it is Manhattan or Grand Forks, South Dakota would merely “encourage” organizations to implement internal controls to help prevent theft.Has Marian Ryan done her due diligence and worked to indict the miserable people stealing rather huge sums of money ???
Why I don’t see the name of this shameless thief?.He should be hung and presto,end of story.
“Scott Vermilya also received an e-mail in February, his from the club’s board president, Rob Kirkpatrick. Like Braverman, Vermilya had started out as an assistant coach and then served as a coach and tournament director; he was elected treasurer in January 2014. Kirkpatrick’s e-mail said that after six years with the club, Vermilya’s help was no longer needed.” Sounds like the club hired someone with no accounting experience to be treasurer. The article also says Vermilya wrote a few bigger checks during the past year so eventually he would have been caught. However, this scenario is typical inasmuch that long-time trusted club/league members have access to credit cards and can slowly bleed the organization. $5K per year over 20 years is $100K. It’s not always the “Big” fraud that causes the most damage. Sometimes it’s death by 1,000 cuts.
It is astonishing that, after any numnber of instacnes of fraud and embezzlement, youth and other non-profit soccer organizations still fail to take the most simple, basic precautions. Someone who is independent of whoever can write checks or charge on cedit/debit cards needs to see the returned checks and reconcile the bank statements monthly and review the charge card statements.