Authorities investigating claims of embezzlement at Western Pennsylvania Youth Football League
The Washington County district attorney along with police are investigating claims of embezzlement at the Western Pennsylvania Youth Football League.
A copy of the email sent to the teams in the WPYFL from police was given to KDKA-TV. It said officers are investigating and they need a certain number of teams to help if they are going to look into the matter.
According to the email, they need 33 of the 44 member teams to authorize for officers to access the league's bank account. This would let them see how much, if any, money has been taken. Right now, it's not known. League meeting minutes say it's estimated there should be about $300,000 in the account but it could be down to $170,000 to $200,000.
"Every individual in the WPYFL does everything they can for those kids and trying to raise as much money and make everything as amazing as possible," Burgettstown Lions President Chris Havelka said.
At this point, member teams are trying to ease the fears of parents and players who are worried about the money for individual members. Each member has several divisions of teams and their own finances.
"Individual team money is fine. It is the WPYFL money that we are not sure about," Havelka said.
Friday afternoon, the league confirmed they were able to get access to their account after it was frozen for fraudulent activity. They said moving forward, a minimum of two members will be on the account after only the former director was on it for several years. The league went on to say they sent all the necessary paperwork to the proper authorities as part of an ongoing effort for transparency and accountability.
At this point, no charges have been filed.
