Randy Park, who served as General Manager of the Wilkes-Barre, Pa., club since 2012, faces felony counts of theft and receiving stolen property. Club leaders accuse Park of racking up “very substantial expenditures,” but police did not include a number in official documents.
State police have filed felony charges against the former General Manager of the Wyoming Valley Country Club in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., claiming he wrote checks to himself, stole from the petty cash fund and bought himself things with a club debit card no one knew about, the Wilkes-Barre, Pa.-based Citizen’s Voice reported.
Randy Park, 39, faces felony counts of theft and receiving stolen property. Arrest papers say club leaders accuse the Newport Township man of racking up “very substantial expenditures,” but state police did not include a number in official documents. The charges only say the alleged theft exceeded $2,000, the threshold for a theft to be a felony, the Voice reported.
“That, we can prove,” said Lt. Richard Krawetz, crime unit commander for state police at Wyoming.
Krawetz said the club hasn’t sought a forensic audit that would reveal the exact total of missing money. From a law enforcement perspective, the exact number isn’t necessary if there’s enough to establish the number was more than $2,000 to make it a felony, Krawetz said.
“The only thing the exact amount would dictate would be restitution,” Krawetz said. “It doesn’t increase the grading of the crime.”
Court records show that Park was arraigned on the charges last month and is free on $25,000 unsecured bail. Krawetz said the investigation focused only on Park, the Voice reported.
The private country club, which was chartered in 1896 and is the fifth oldest in the state, has about 500 dues-paying members. The club generated $2,493,755 in revenue in the fiscal year that ended in 2014, which was $165,564 less than expenses totaling $2,659,339, the Voice reported.
Park was fired on January 23, 2015, months after an annual audit spotlighted financial irregularities, arrest papers say. He had been employed there since December 2012, the Voice reported.
Club leaders approached state police in March 2015 about the alleged thefts and suspicious transactions, arrest papers say. The criminal complaint details correspondence between Park and special counsel hired by the club to handle the missing money issue. Park vowed to “make right with the club,” but disputed the amount of restitution sought, the attorney told investigators.
The attorney told state police his review of the club’s financial records determined, “Park made or directed very substantial expenditures, which were undocumented, unauthorized, not for club purposes and which benefited Park.” He said he sent a letter to Park on February 26, 2015, demanding a specified amount be paid within 10 days. Park responded days later with a phone call, disputing the number demanded and “countered with a significantly lower estimate of what he believed he owed the club,” arrest papers say.
The attorney said he then met with the Wyoming Valley Country Club Board of Governors and members were “universally displeased” with Park’s offer. In September, officials with the country club provided state police with financial records from January 2013 through December 2015, the Voice reported.
State police wrote that they determined Park made more than $2,000 in unauthorized transactions by writing checks to himself, using the club’s debit card, and dipping into the petty cash fund. He also didn’t make his health care payments as required, the Voice reported.
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