Police looking into losses from soccer league

By: JOHN HALL - Staff Writer | Monday, April 16, 2007 11:20 PM PDT ∞

TEMECULA ---- Police detectives have launched an investigation into the possible misappropriation of funds from the Temecula Valley Soccer Association.

Temecula police were handed the investigation about three weeks ago by the state attorney general's office, which was notified about a year ago by association officials of the possible missing funds, police Sgt. Bill De Luna said Monday.

"We're looking into it," De Luna said. "We are going to investigate the allegation to determine if there has been a crime."

"It's too early to say for sure that a crime has happened," he said, adding that there is always the possibility of poor bookkeeping.

The attorney general's office was first asked to look into it because the association is a nonprofit organization and the state office oversees such groups.

"Their investigation concluded that some criminal activity may have occurred, so they contacted us," De Luna said.

It is suspected that between 1999 and 2006, a minimum of $50,000 was diverted, De Luna said. Losses could even top $100,000, the sergeant added.

Detectives believe that association checks were written both by and to members of the board for personal use such as for household and construction items, De Luna said.

"We have a couple of persons of interest we are looking at," he said, adding that they are people who had access to the missing funds.

De Luna believes the investigation could take as long as a year to complete as there are many interviews yet to do and a large amount of auditing still to complete.

Doug Haserot, the association's controller, said Monday that there are now several precautions in place to ensure such losses of league funds don't happen again.

The association's books are being sent to a certified public accountant unaffiliated with the association who reviews the finances on a monthly basis.

The league's books are always open for review, Haserot said.

"This is a nonprofit and that is always how it should be done," he said.

The money suspected of being misappropriated came from a variety of association funds, Haserot said.

Even with the loss, the association continues to flourish and is the largest such soccer league in Southwest County, Haserot said. The league has as many as 3,000 players at certain times of the year, he said.

"The league is very solvent," he said. "This has not devastated us. We will keep running and we are actually in very good shape right now."

He declined to discuss specifics of the investigation because it is still being looked at by detectives.

Contact staff writer John Hall at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2628, or jhall@californian.com.