Bellevue Company Sued Over Youth Sports Fees

A Bellevue company that handles payments for youth sports groups is being sued in federal court by a New Jersey soccer club that claims the company failed to turn over $142,000 in registration payments.

Montclair United Soccer Club of New Jersey filed the lawsuit Nov. 10 in U.S. District Court in Seattle, claiming it has received only partial payments of funds handled by Count Me In Corp., also known as Arena Group. Named as defendants are the corporation and J. Terrence Drayton, identified as the founder and chief executive officer of Count Me In and Arena Group.

> Good idea. I know the Washington AGO is investigating but it’s difficult to find any information if a criminal investigation is ongoing.

If they are a not-for-profit (NFP) I would assume that their Charter is a matter of public record (it certainly is here in New Zealand where I live). It is probably even available online. Why not grab a copy, see what it says?

The IRS might be interested if the NFP isn’t operating within its Charter because of the prospect of tax evasion. They tend to like to jump on tax evasion and make an example of anyone who does it.

Typically an NFP must operate in a way that none of its Trustees are permitted to directly benefit from the NFP. Sure, they can be employed or contracted by the NFP, but all of that must be transparent and “at arm’s length”. That is always a great thing to check: the quantum in question — some $142,000 if I recall correctly — is a tidy sum that might account for about one year’s salary for a hi-flyer.

Don’t discount the possibility of someone on the Board having a gambling or drug problem, and using the Board’s money to fund it. That happens so often it isn’t even funny. Another great reason to involve the IRS.

Anyway, just a few suggestions: hope they help.

Count Me In Corporation is not a non profit - it is a private firm founded by Terry Drayton. My youth baseball league has asked those who registered through CMI to dispute their credit card charges with their credit card companies. When the charges are reversed we hope that the registrants will forward the registration money to out league. We gave detailed instructions to the registrants along with CMI’s phone number to be passed along to the credit card companies. We believe this is the only way our league will get our money back.

> Count Me In Corporation is not a non profit - it is a private firm founded by Terry Drayton.

Wow. That’s interesting (and counter-intuitive) What value do they add to the process, then?

I wouldn’t mind knowing more about this: it’s intriguing. I do a fair bit of work with four not-for-profits (two sports-oriented, one community-oriented and one school) so this subject matter is of some considerable interest to me.

What can you tell me?

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