$230,000 ‘disappears’ from Coquitlam Little League bank account

COQUITLAM (NEWS 1130) — After families expecting refunds from Coquitlam Little League for the cancelled 2020 season began raising concerns they weren’t getting their cheques, the board discovered nearly $230,000 had vanished from the organization’s bank account.

In an email to membership, the board said the balance of the bank account was $229,971.31 on June 9. By August 3, less than $3,000 remained and unpaid bills were beginning to pile up.

“The Board of Directors was shocked by these findings, as we expect you are as you read this. We wanted to share this information with you as soon as possible and to ask for your patience as this serious matter is investigated,” the email continues, adding a report has been made to Coquitlam RCMP.

“As I hope you can understand, as a result of this serious issue, we are unable to offer refunds to our member families at this time,” the email continues.

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Sandon Fraser, board president, has issued a statement saying the organization is “devastated.”

“CLL is built on a strong sense of community, and over the past 65 years we have earned the trust of parents, players, other young people, and members of the public. Today, we are facing a challenging time. I speak for all of the Board when I say that we are working hard to ensure that we don’t lose your trust and support as a result of this serious situation. We are confident that we will find out exactly what happened, how it happened, and why – and that together, we will find a way forward,” the statement reads.

The league has sought legal advice and retained an independent accountant to review the organization’s financial records.

“We will provide updates to our members and to the public when we are able to do so. We are taking every measure to ensure that the RCMP can do their job in investigating this issue,” the statement says.

“We are a close community and it is normal to speculate on who might be involved and what occurred. I want to ask you to refrain from engaging in any kind of speculation. It is important that we get to the truth and that we do not let rumours or gossip influence us or cause us to act in any way.”

The League will be holding a virtual conference later this month to update affected families.

In 2019, a team from the league represented Canada at the Little League World Series.