Trust, volunteer Staff can make Booster Clubs vulnerable to theft

FROM THE DETROITNEWS.COM

Last year, Bruce Bosman was working on plans to send his son and other members of the Riverview High School varsity football team to a camp when he got a call from the bank: The account used by the team's booster club didn't have enough money to cover the $2,100 cost.
"I said, 'That's impossible. We should have $28,000 to $30,000 in that account,'" said Bosman, the club president. They didn't. The account had about $1,800. The rest had been taken by the treasurer, who has pleaded guilty and agreed to repay $35,000.
Riverview was stung a second time when the president of its high school baseball boosters took money; he's to be sentenced this month. Other Metro Detroit athletic clubs, including groups in Livonia and Westland, have reported thefts, too.
Authorities say such groups can be especially vulnerable, since they're not regulated under state law and often have unpaid volunteers handling large sums of money from ticket sales and concession stands. "What organizations can do is make sure they're structured properly and make sure there are checks and balances," said Riverview Deputy Police Chief Clifford Rosebohm, who investigated both theft cases in his city. "Organizations have to operate with the idea of transparency."
School officials say boosters are an important contributor to athletic programs — raising money for trips, events, equipment and even uniforms. With education budgets shrinking and state aid drying up, they'll remain a vital support system for school sports teams, said Riverview Superintendent Dennis Desmarais.
But in the end, it's difficult to stop someone who's set on stealing, he said.
"Riverview probably has some of the best guidelines when it comes to boosters, but once again it's trust and someone took advantage of us," Desmarais said.
In Riverview, the theft from the football boosters led to embezzlement charges against Shelie Ann Gendron, the club treasurer. In a plea deal, Gendron was charged with embezzlement and is to finish repaying the $35,000 by August. She was accepted into Wayne County's diversion program about two months ago.
Gendron, who could not be reached for comment, could have her record expunged if she completes the program.
In the second case, involving Riverview's baseball boosters, ex-club president Alan Wade Benson pleaded guilty in May to larceny by conversion, more than $1,000 but less than $20,000.
In response, the school district made booster club finances more transparent and began doing background checks of club members who handle money.
Statistics aren't kept on embezzlement from athletic organizations, but police — citing the struggling economy — say it's happening more often now.
Brian Molloy, 38, of Farmington took more than $100,000 from a Livonia soccer club while serving as the nonprofit's treasurer. He pleaded no contest to embezzlement over $20,000 and was sentenced to two years' probation in February. He paid $87,000 in restitution.
Galen Huren Jr., 46, is charged with embezzling more than $20,000 from the Westland Youth Athletic organization, where he was president. He is free on $10,000 bond and awaits a preliminary exam Thursday.
How school districts oversee sports boosters varies widely.
"It's just not an area that schools have asked us to have any involvement in," said John Johnson, communications director for the Michigan High School Athletic Association. "Every district is a little bit different as far as their structure of how they handle their monies."
Now in Riverview, accounts are online, making it easier to track deposits and withdrawals. Carbon copies of transactions are given to a board member, the boosters' treasurer and Bosman. The club now does a background check on anybody involved with money. That would have weeded out Benson, who faces up to five years in prison when sentenced this month for larceny by conversion.
Benson, 49, absconded from parole in 2008. A felon, he spent three years behind bars for charges of false pretenses — fraud — and larceny by conversion of $20,000 or more.
Rosebohm, the Riverview police official, says a lack of oversight and access to money can tempt club officers to steal.
"They're not employees of the school district. They're not required to go through the background checks," Rosebohm said. Fred Smith, the athletic director for Buchanan Community Schools in Berrien County, agrees checks and balances are critical.
"This is the first year we've brought everything inside, and now everything is run through the school accounts," Smith said. "It's better this way. If you left a $20 bill on a counter, the temptation is there for someone to walk away with it. We have checks and balances when it comes to deposits. Everything is accounted for."
It's the loss of trust that really hurts, Bosman said. He remembers confronting Gendron after the funds went missing. "She looked right at me and said, 'I'm the most honest person you could meet. Stealing from you is like stealing from my own children.'"