SopranoKris
Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Illinois
A travel baseball team was formed in our area by 2 people. One called himself the Manager, the other is the Head Coach. We were approached to be on the team by the Head Coach. He is a good friend of ours and has an excellent reputation as a great coach with children, our boys are in the same class in schools, etc. Long story short, we would not have joined the team if were not for this coach.
The manager is a person that many of us on the team were not familiar with. At the outset, the parents were told that we would have monthly meetings, including financial statements each month. Travel baseball is costly and no one wants to pay $500 per kid plus required fundraisers if the money is going to be mishandled. The families were anxious to get the team formed and we were all willing to wait for the necessary paperwork to form the organization. We were continually told "you'll get the by-laws soon"
No by-laws were ever given to any parent, even though we've requested them several times. The manager elected himself President of the organization and we recently found out his wife opened the team's account in her own name (doing business as our team name). No one on the team has access to the account.
We have never received any financial statements. We've asked repeatedly for copies of the bank statements & receipts for expenses so we can audit the financials. All we get in response is "you'll get it". This has been going on since November 2009.
We have reason to believe that the manager & his wife been using funds from the account for their own personal use. Specifically, we were quoted uniform costs that were overstated by $150 (after verifying the cost with the company who supplied the uniforms). We were quoted expenses for our training facilities that were double the actual cost (after verifying the cost with the facility). In short, we believe this man has spent thousands of dollars from the team's account, including money that was donated during fundraisers.
How do we go about filing to get our money back? He's refusing to refund any parent, especially those of us who have requested to review the financials.
Is there any criminal action we can take? Bottom line is, he's really hurt a team of 11 year old boys & upset their families by doing this. We just want our money back so we can go elsewhere to play ball.
A travel baseball team was formed in our area by 2 people. One called himself the Manager, the other is the Head Coach. We were approached to be on the team by the Head Coach. He is a good friend of ours and has an excellent reputation as a great coach with children, our boys are in the same class in schools, etc. Long story short, we would not have joined the team if were not for this coach.
The manager is a person that many of us on the team were not familiar with. At the outset, the parents were told that we would have monthly meetings, including financial statements each month. Travel baseball is costly and no one wants to pay $500 per kid plus required fundraisers if the money is going to be mishandled. The families were anxious to get the team formed and we were all willing to wait for the necessary paperwork to form the organization. We were continually told "you'll get the by-laws soon"
No by-laws were ever given to any parent, even though we've requested them several times. The manager elected himself President of the organization and we recently found out his wife opened the team's account in her own name (doing business as our team name). No one on the team has access to the account.
We have never received any financial statements. We've asked repeatedly for copies of the bank statements & receipts for expenses so we can audit the financials. All we get in response is "you'll get it". This has been going on since November 2009.
We have reason to believe that the manager & his wife been using funds from the account for their own personal use. Specifically, we were quoted uniform costs that were overstated by $150 (after verifying the cost with the company who supplied the uniforms). We were quoted expenses for our training facilities that were double the actual cost (after verifying the cost with the facility). In short, we believe this man has spent thousands of dollars from the team's account, including money that was donated during fundraisers.
How do we go about filing to get our money back? He's refusing to refund any parent, especially those of us who have requested to review the financials.
Is there any criminal action we can take? Bottom line is, he's really hurt a team of 11 year old boys & upset their families by doing this. We just want our money back so we can go elsewhere to play ball.
