Local coaches kickback scheme update! Things are heating up

District finds possible embezzlement by coaches (OC Reg)

Money don't get everything it's true
What it don't get, I can't use

     Capistrano Unified acknowledged Wednesday that some of its high school athletic coaches may have embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars of district and parent money in an elaborate kickback scheme involving a local athletic supply company....
     Capistrano Superintendent Joe Farley said the initial findings of a nine-month, internal district investigation indicate that Laguna Hills-based Lapes Athletic Team Sales, now defunct, may have overbilled the district for athletic supplies and then shared the excess cash with coaches who placed the orders.  
     "We believe there could have been criminal misconduct," Farley said in an interview Wednesday. "The findings are significant enough that it merits being turned over to the sheriff's department."
. . .
     The district's private investigator ... is working on a report summarizing the findings, Farley said. The report likely will be turned over to the Orange County Sheriff's Department by the end of the summer.
     Capistrano ... was the first district to look into allegations brought forth by Geoff and Teresa Sando of Irvine, who inherited the Lapes company....
     After reviewing thousands of invoices, receipts and canceled checks, the Sandos concluded that coaches at about 30 high schools and community colleges in Orange County may have received illegal money and gifts from Lapes.
     All of the school districts implicated by the Sandos have since launched investigations, said Orange County schools Superintendent Bill Habermehl. Many have concluded that while their coaches received kickbacks from Lapes, the funds were used appropriately for team-related expenses.
     "They found out there was nothing wrong, or there was an error of judgment but no misappropriation or misuse of funds," Habermehl said. "Ninety-nine percent of our coaches are doing nothing wrong. It's just a matter of a few who broke ranks and had a poor error in judgment."
     Others are continuing their investigations, including Irvine Unified and Saddleback Valley Unified. Habermehl also has requested that the sheriff's department launch a countywide investigation….