Burlington, WA- A Burlington woman has been accused of stealing thousands of dollars in fundraising money from a local nonprofit organization called the Vala Youngquist Guild.
According to a probable cause affidavit, the Burlington woman is a former treasurer of the nonprofit.
The Vala Youngquist Guild, founded in 1993, is a group of Skagit Valley women dedicated to raising money and awareness for Seattle Children’s Hospital.
Many local women know of the organization because the nonprofit has held an annual “Holiday shopping bus” fundraiser. For a fee or donation, ladies would be treated to a luxurious day of shopping, raffles, games, and pampering while being transported on chartered buses to stores in and around the Seattle and Bellevue area. The 20th annual Holiday shopping bus fundraiser was cancelled this year.
According to a probable cause affidavit obtained through a public records request, Burlington Police were dispatched to contact the acting president of the Vala Youngquist Guild on October 16th, 2014.
The acting president had information police that the Guild’s former treasurer, a Burlington Woman (J.W), had possibly embezzled a large amount of money from the organization. Note: We have decided not to fully name the subject but instead use her initials.
According to the probable cause affidavit, the acting president became suspicious of the treasurer after the acting president had asked numerous times to look at and go over the books with her and the treasurer became very defensive. The treasurer told the acting president that at the time she was “going through some personal difficulties and did not have time to look into the matter.”
The acting president went to the nonprofit organizations bank to gain additional information and found there was significantly less money in the account than there should have been.
The probable cause affidavit says the nonprofit organizations current checking account had been opened the previous November and the organizations previous checking account should have been closed at that time. The acting president learned that the treasurer had opened the new checking account but had not closed the former account like she was supposed to.
The acting president then went to the original bank and requested documentation from them on any account activity. The acting president, found the treasurer had written out eleven (11) separate checks to herself as cash for events that had never occurred.
According to the probable cause affidavit, a co-treasurer at the time had cosigned on two of the checks at the former treasurers request. Further investigation revealed that the co-treasurer had signed the two checks but stated they were blank at the time she had signed them. The remaining nine checks, which had been written between July 26th 2013 and August 29th, 2014 had the co-treasurer’s signature on them, which police later learned were forged. The total amount of the eleven checks was around $12,000.00.
The acting president then contacted the Seattle Children’s Hospital and found out that they had only received $2,700 over the past two years from the organization, significantly less then the organization had raised and should have been received from the nonprofit.
Minutes from a meeting on January 16, 2014 regarding a shopping bus trip fundraiser in November of 2013 showed the organization had raised around $27,000.00, The organization had about $9,000.00 in expenses for the trip, so Seattle Children’s Hospital should have received over $17,000.00 as a result of the fundraiser.
Further investigation revealed that the checks from the shopping bus event had been deposited into the organizations new checking account, but only $100.00 of the cash collected had been deposited. The acting president stated that about 80% of the money raised had been in cash. The acting president believed there was around $10,000 in cash missing or unaccounted for.
On November 17th, 2014 Burlington Police investigators were able to obtain the former treasurers personal bank records. There were over $7,900.00 in multiple separate cash deposits made into her personal account between June 2013 and September 2014. These were unusual deposits that were not from other sources, such as work, the state, etc.
According to court documents, on July 26th, 2013, the former treasurer had deposited $600.00 cash into her personal checking account. The same day, she had written out a check as cash for $700.00 from the Vala Youngquist Gala bank account.
Court documents also show that on August 30th, 2013, she again deposited $600.00 into her personal checking account and on the same day had written a $700.00 check from the Vala Youngquist Organization’s bank account. On December 4th 2013, she deposited $500.00, December 9th she deposited $400.00 and on December 10th, 2013 records show she deposited another $300.00. This was just a couple weeks after the organizations shopping bus fundraiser had concluded.
In total the court documents show the Nonprofit Organization is missing close to $25,000.00 or more which should have went to the Seattle Children’s Hospital.
We reached out via email to the organization for a comment on this story but had not heard back from them as of yet.
Court Records show on October 28th, 2014, Burlington Police contacted the former treasurer by phone and she advised Officers that she wanted to speak with a lawyer before speaking with the police. According to court documents she refused to schedule an interview and charges were forwarded to the Skagit County Prosecutors Office.
She is not in custody at this time and is currently awaiting her next court appearance.
Additional Details about the nonprofit group and the shopping bus fundraisers:
According to the organizations Facebook Page, The Vala Youngquist Guild is a group of women from Skagit County who are devoted to raising awareness and funds for the benefit of Seattle Children’s.
Sources for article: Skagit County Superior Court Documents, via a Public Disclosure Request. Facebook page for nonprofit.
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