North Dakota parent lodges fraud complaint against youth hockey group

BISMARCK — A mum or dad has filed a fraud grievance with the North Dakota Lawyer Normal’s Workplace claiming the Bismarck Hockey Boosters profited from canceled ice time through the coronavirus pandemic.

The claims within the grievance have been vigorously denied by the youth hockey group’s govt director, Mikayla Jablonski Jahner, who stated the group didn’t revenue from the pandemic shutdown and that every one groups loved a full 12 months of tournaments through the 2020-2021 season.

“We had our COVID insurance policies that we adopted. So far as any cancellations, we by no means canceled any a part of it,” Jahner stated, acknowledging that the 2020-2021 hockey season was interrupted after Gov. Doug Burgum issued an

govt order

suspending sporting occasions.

“There was a time when the governor shut every thing down, so we did have a two-week break there,” Jahner stated, including that the state’s hockey affiliation

challenged the manager order

and was allowed to renew actions so long as protocols have been adopted.

“The state hockey affiliation fought the governor on that they usually did enable us to return to the ice then. We nonetheless had a full season so far as league video games, we had a state match, with a two-week break,” she stated.

The mum or dad who filed the grievance, Brent McCarthy of Bismarck, advised The Discussion board he waited greater than a 12 months to take action as a result of he didn’t need his youngsters enjoying hockey to face any repercussions.

In his grievance, McCarthy wrote that “through the 2020/2021 hockey season which started in October 2020, the Bismarck Hockey Boosters (BHB) determined to droop the season as a result of Covid-19 for over a month of the roughly 4-month season.”

McCarthy additional claimed within the grievance that the group didn’t should pay for ice time, which was $80 an hour for 3 to 6 occasions every week for 25 to 30 groups, through the shutdown.

Jahner disputed this, saying the group paid for the ice time for your complete season.

“Even when the rink shuts down for upkeep points, we nonetheless pay. We needed to pay all our payments throughout that two-week shutdown and that whole season, regardless of us dropping income from totally different areas similar to concessions, registrations, and many others.,” Jahner stated.

In response to the Bismarck Hockey Boosters’ response to the grievance filed with the North Dakota Lawyer Normal’s Workplace, the group spent $158,450 for ice rental, which is identical quantity they paid in earlier years.

General, the group paid $626,412 in bills in 2019-2020 and $807,551 in 2020-2021, in accordance with the group’s response.

In his grievance, McCarthy claimed that Bismarck Hockey Boosters saved tens of hundreds of {dollars} on account of the pandemic shutdown.

“A whole bunch of oldsters spent as a lot as $1,200 for his or her girls and boys to get pleasure from BHB’s providers,” McCarthy wrote within the grievance, including: “They (pocketed) tens of hundreds of {dollars} of the mum or dad’s cash and wouldn’t give the mother and father pro-rated refunds such as you would count on. BHB as an alternative determined to revenue from Covid-19 by defrauding lots of of oldsters and their youngsters out of tens of hundreds of {dollars} and loved the windfall earnings ensuing from the pandemic.”

Within the grievance, McCarthy wrote that he was on the lookout for a refund of $425 after he paid $1,700 for the hockey season for his youngsters.

The legal professional basic’s workplace tried to mediate the difficulty between McCarthy and the Bismarck Hockey Boosters, saying in a Dec. 6 letter {that a} mutual decision had not been reached and that non-public attorneys could possibly be consulted.

The Bismarck Hockey Boosters started in 1972, and greater than 700 gamers from Bismarck participate within the group’s program every year. A typical season begins in October and ends in March.