Solar's David Ringer siphoned $800k+ from Club..

by b0013 4/8/2011, 11:40 pm

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by BRETT SHIPP
WFAA
Posted on April 8, 2011 at 10:00 PM

Updated today at 10:58 PM

One of the most successful youth soccer programs in the nation is located in North Texas, and has now been dealt perhaps its biggest loss in 15 years.

It has been defeated not by one of its opponents, but allegedly by a trusted former club president who parents say stole hundreds of thousands of dollars, leaving them scrambling to make a save.

The club's 300 young players and their parents are fighting in court to overcome an unlikely opponent, one of their own.

Parents say David Ringer siphoned off more than $800,000 from them over the last five years. He was the last man many of them would suspect.

"He was the chairman," said Steven Badger, a parent. "He was the president. He was the bookkeeper; he was the counsel; he was the administrator. Everything was run out of his office."

Ringer was so trusted with club's money, no one questioned his bookkeeping until just a few months ago when checks to coaches started to bounce.

Parents said upon closer inspection, they found a checkbook ledger indicating the chairman and president had been paying himself $5,000, $10,000 and up to $15,000 checks, sometimes just a few days apart.

In all, over a five-year period, parents allege in court filings that Ringer paid himself more than $800,000 not only from membership dues, but from more than $300,000 in loans that no one but Ringer previously knew about.

Ringer, who has filed for bankruptcy, said he's prohibited from discussing his case. However, in a letter to News 8, Ringer called the allegations "defamatory" as well as "unfounded, unwarranted ... and in dispute".

Once Ringer was confronted by parents, he told them he had been paying himself for legal work done for the club over the years, the parents said. While he had not been submitting monthly invoices, he did produce a schedule of itemized charges to support his claims, charges that also angered the parents. The charges included hours billed for "attending games," "rescheduling games" and "fundraising issues."

"So, it didn't wash and it also didn't wash because he never issued an invoice," Badger said. "He submitted a bill for legal service to the club and that's just lawyering 101. If you are going to charge someone for your services, you have to put a bill together and the club never saw a bill."

Parents have forced Ringer to step down. They are also intervening in Ringer's bankruptcy, seeking repayment and restructuring of all outstanding loans.

Parents and organizers say the club has rebounded financially. But, just like in the game of soccer, the parents vow to learn from their mistakes.

"The lesson is that for any 501(c)(3) or any charitable group, no matter who's running it or how trusted he or she is, you got to have some checks and balances," Badger said. "You got to pay attention."

by plantit 4/9/2011, 12:43 am

Jeez Whats next?

by What 4/9/2011, 7:10 am

People do funny things for money, it’s sad when you have to steal from kids...

by norwich city 4/9/2011, 7:21 am

Hang'em it'll teach him a lesson.

by anselansel 4/9/2011, 8:00 am

"People do funny things for money, it’s sad when you have to steal from kids..."

a thief is a thief, stealing from kids makes no more difference than stealing from anyone else......

which is why you must always have a system of checks and balances

by The German 4/9/2011, 8:01 am

norwich city wrote:Hang'em it'll teach him a lesson.

Who cares about teaching a lesson just hang 'em and get the Andro guy at the same time.

by jlussi 4/9/2011, 8:43 am

I still don't see why parents pay 1000sssss to these big clubs, is it really worth what you get?

by socmom3 4/9/2011, 8:45 am

The German wrote:
norwich city wrote:Hang'em it'll teach him a lesson.
Who cares about teaching a lesson just hang 'em and get the Andro guy at the same time.

"like" button Very Happy

by b0013 4/9/2011, 9:27 am

aggiemt wrote:Shipp's really on the ball ....Ringer was ousted a year ago.

Which makes you wonder why Steven Badger, a parent, interviewed for the Channel 8..

My guess is the Club wants to add some pressure to Mr Ringer for repayment in some manner.

Who is this Steven Badger guy? (other than "a parent")

by fuzzy taco 4/9/2011, 9:42 am

b0013 wrote:
aggiemt wrote:Shipp's really on the ball ....Ringer was ousted a year ago.

Which makes you wonder why Steven Badger, a parent, interviewed for the Channel 8..

My guess is the Club wants to add some pressure to Mr Ringer for repayment in some manner.

Who is this Steven Badger guy? (other than "a parent")

He is an Attorney as well

by SailorMoon 4/9/2011, 10:44 am

Wow....what the heck is next??? Really makes you wonder doesn't it.

by abc123 4/9/2011, 11:06 am

Ringer gets a 5 out 5 on a prominent legal peer review website.
Enough said.

by Ibra 4/9/2011, 11:35 am

b0013 wrote:
aggiemt wrote:Shipp's really on the ball ....Ringer was ousted a year ago.

Which makes you wonder why Steven Badger, a parent, interviewed for the Channel 8..

My guess is the Club wants to add some pressure to Mr Ringer for repayment in some manner.

Who is this Steven Badger guy? (other than "a parent")

b0013, you know the answer as to who/what Badger is...go ahead and say it?

by Freeatlast 4/9/2011, 12:12 pm

b0013 wrote:
aggiemt wrote:Shipp's really on the ball ....Ringer was ousted a year ago.

Which makes you wonder why Steven Badger, a parent, interviewed for the Channel 8..

My guess is the Club wants to add some pressure to Mr Ringer for repayment in some manner.

Who is this Steven Badger guy? (other than "a parent")

He's a good friend of Mole.

by Freeatlast 4/9/2011, 12:14 pm

Well, now we know why the select fees are so high!

Seriously though, Ringer isn't half the man Bernie Madoff is!

by 94fan 4/9/2011, 12:30 pm

Interesting...several years ago when my son first started playing for Solar in U11 the club sent out notices they were looking for people interested in being on the Solar board....given I'm a practicing CPA and do treasurer duties for companies alot, I offered up to help...I even spoke to Ringer...strangely enough he had no interest in using me or changing his "bookkeeping" arrangements. I wasn't even planning to charge him to do it...Now we all know why he had no interest!

by txlongball 4/9/2011, 9:28 pm

funny that everyone thought the Texans were the evil empire with the dark lord running the show. it looks like compared to andro and solar the dark lord is not looking so bad after all

by soccerdad1 4/9/2011, 10:00 pm

I believe something similar happened several years ago to another club-American Eagles/DFW Tornados (not 100% sure of the club). You would think that ALL clubs would have learned from that one.

by THE NEEDLE 4/11/2011, 7:45 am

Gives a whole new meaning to going through "the ringer".

by Goal4Momma 4/11/2011, 10:23 am

soccerdad1 wrote:I believe something similar happened several years ago to another club-American Eagles/DFW Tornados (not 100% sure of the club). You would think that ALL clubs would have learned from that one.

It wasn't the Tornados..... or American Eagles..... queen

by scrdad 4/11/2011, 10:48 am

"no one questioned his bookkeeping until just a few months ago when checks to coaches started to bounce" -- that's a quote from the story. However, my understanding is that this situation was discovered over a year ago and Solar coaches have been getting paid this season. I feel uncomfortable asking a coach if he's getting paid, so does anyone know if the Solar coaches are all up-to-date on their comp? Thanks.

by soccerrus2 4/11/2011, 10:57 am

soccerdad1 wrote:I believe something similar happened several years ago to another club-American Eagles/DFW Tornados (not 100% sure of the club). You would think that ALL clubs would have learned from that one.

That was Texas Lightning.

by TheFarPost 4/11/2011, 12:37 pm

txlongball wrote:funny that everyone thought the Texans were the evil empire with the dark lord running the show. it looks like compared to andro and solar the dark lord is not looking so bad after all

So does being a good bookkeeper mean that your an Angel Evil or Very Mad

by soccergirl11 4/11/2011, 7:29 pm

It is so sad when you think of someone being in charge of an organzation that is built for kids and for them to steal from them. Do you not have any ethics or morals? This is my first time to post on here and I felt like it was time to say something about this. Just sad!! Crying or Very sad

by soccergrinder 4/11/2011, 8:36 pm

scrdad wrote:"no one questioned his bookkeeping until just a few months ago when checks to coaches started to bounce" -- that's a quote from the story. However, my understanding is that this situation was discovered over a year ago and Solar coaches have been getting paid this season. I feel uncomfortable asking a coach if he's getting paid, so does anyone know if the Solar coaches are all up-to-date on their comp? Thanks.

scrdad,

The story may be a little misleading. Last year Solar was going through some hard times dealing with the loss of the Prince of Peace fields (Prince of Peace wanted to build a football stadium on the land). POP used a loop hole in their contract with Solar to end the field partnership with Solar two years before the contract would expire. After this ordeal Solar decided to build their own soccer complex. After many months of looking and negotiating on several sites Solar procured the rights to a piece of land and procured a bank loan. All they needed was a hefty investment up front to get the deal to go through (they still needed a variance to build a soccer complex on the land). Solar approached its parents and associates for donations towards the complex. During this process there seemed to be some reluctance by David Ringer to release financial information to some of the parents who were willing to give Solar substantial money. No one wants to put up large sums of money without looking at the books, so to speak. So the soccer complex deal seemed to be faltering because no financial information was being released. During this time period a parent got a hold of 2 years of Solar back tax returns, public records, that had what seemed to be some substantial fees being paid to David Ringer over a two year period. This was brought to the attention of the other Solar board members. After closer inspection of the details the board decided that it was in the best interest of Solar if David Ringer would step down. A new temporary management team was brought in and a more robust management structure was initiated. To my knowledge all coaches have been and are up to date with their fees since this ordeal went down.

My speculation is that the reason this is hitting the news now is possibly because Solar has finished its audits of the books back several years and have decided to try and recoup some of the money in question. And evidently Ringer has decided to file bankruptcy to protect himself from having to pay the money back.

I am not a spokesperson for Solar so take any of this at face value. Unsubstantiated gossip on a soccer chat forum.