Football · Issue No. 24
The Takeaway: Ask Who Reviews Your Booster Club's Books
Week of September 14, 2026
THE TAKEAWAY: One volunteer with unsupervised control over an organization's finances for years is exactly the pattern that shows up in case after case — ask who reviews the books, and how often.
A federal grand jury indicted a 56-year-old Orange County woman this month on four counts of wire fraud, accusing her of embezzling more than $411,000 from the booster club that financially supports Aliso Niguel High School's football program. Julie Hanway Molina served as the club's treasurer — a volunteer position built entirely on trust — from 2023 through November 2025.
According to the indictment, Molina diverted club funds directly into her own mortgage payments and credit card bills, including a single transfer of over $131,000 used to pay off a delinquent mortgage balance on her own home. To keep the board from noticing, prosecutors allege she sent them falsified treasurer's reports that concealed the missing money.
The booster club — separate from the school district itself — says it's cooperating fully with the investigation. If convicted on all four counts, Molina faces a statutory maximum of 20 years in federal prison per count.
This is a genuinely large number for a volunteer-run booster club, and it's worth sitting with why it was possible at all: one person had essentially unsupervised control over the organization's finances for more than two years, submitting her own reports with no independent check on whether they were accurate. That's not a story about a single bad actor so much as a story about how little oversight most youth sports fundraising organizations actually have.
If your family's team, league, or booster club runs on volunteer treasurers and parent-run bank accounts — and most do — a fair question worth asking your organization: who reviews the books, how often, and does more than one person have to sign off on where the money goes? It's an uncomfortable question to ask a group of fellow parents. It's a much easier one to ask before a six-figure number shows up in a headline than after.
This piece ran in PPA Pro Issue No. 24, alongside a camp spotlight and trainer pick for every sport. Subscribe free.
Also in Issue No. 24
- The Takeaway: A New Program With No Track Record Deserves Extra ScrutinyBasketball
- The Takeaway: Ask for Real Booking Confirmations Before Wiring MoneySoccer
- The Takeaway: Require Two Signatures for Any Withdrawal Above a Modest ThresholdBaseball
- The Takeaway: Ask Your League for a Basic Annual Financial SummarySoftball