READING, PA. — The president of a local youth soccer club is charged with stealing over $75,000 from the organization. Jermaine L. Martin, 42, of Sinking Spring, is charged with Theft by Failure to Make Required Disposition of Funds Received, Receiving Stolen Property, Theft by Unlawful Taking or Disposition and Theft by Deception after investigators say he misappropriated funds from the Wilson Junior Soccer Club (WJSC) using the clubs debit card.
Martin was elected president of the WJSC in December of 2014. Prior to that he served as the club’s vice-president and acted as president for all of 2014 because the president’s position was vacant at that time.
In August of 2015, detectives from the District Attorney Crime Unit initiated a financial investigation into the theft of money from the all-volunteer, non-profit club after board members discovered the bank accounts for the club were short a large sum of money.
The club has two bank accounts. The money comes from player registrations and fundraisers held throughout the year. When the board members discovered the shortage, one of them emailed all the current board members about a large volume of cash withdrawals. The board member was concerned that the accounts were electronically hacked. Within minutes of receiving this email, President Martin responded to the email stating that the accounts were not hacked and there were no issues with the existing accounts.
As a result of the aforementioned findings and concerns, one of the vice presidents of the club requested an emergency meeting on August 6th, 2015 with the board members and to include the prior board president. During this meeting, all board members were present and the prior president. President Martin did not attend the meeting. At this meeting, the board decided to suspend Martin and contact the District Attorney’s Office.
During the investigation, detectives learned that Martin took charge of every aspect of the board meetings. During the June 11th, 2015 board meeting, Martin reported a balance in one of the bank accounts at approximately $263,000. Unknown to the board members the balance was actually $188,778.77.
Detectives obtained search warrants for bank accounts for the WJSC and personal bank account(s) for Jermaine L. Martin. As a result, detectives discovered a total of $74,734.38 of unauthorized cash withdrawals were made from the WJSC bank accounts by Martin between October 14, 2014 and July 21, 2015 using the WJSC debit card.
On December 21, 2015, detectives obtained a warrant of arrest for Jermaine L. Martin for the aforementioned listed charges. The warrant was issued by Magisterial District Judge Ann L. Young. On December 22, 2015 at 2:30 PM, Jermaine L. Martin surrendered to Berks County Detectives at their office accompanied by his attorney. Mr. Martin is currently being processed at the Berks County Sherriff’s Department Processing Center.
