The 2019-2020 treasurer of the Oglethorpe County Athletic Booster Club is free on bond after turning herself in Monday for theft of funds from that organization.
Tiffany Gomes is charged with theft by taking after an arrest warrant was issued Oct. 30.
The preliminary total of missing funds from the athletic boosters account was some $127,795.26 from Feb. 1, 2017 to Oct. 18, 2019.
The discovery was made on Oct. 17 when the bank that keeps the accounts for the athletic booster club contacted the president regarding an email purported to be from her, according to the Oglethorpe County Sheriff’s Office. The president went to the bank and found an email asking the bank to pay off a loan taken out by one of the officers.
“The president had no knowledge of this loan and did not authorize payment of it,” according to an OCSO social media post. “She looked at the bank statement and found there was only $71. According to their most recent financial statement, rendered at their last meeting, there should have been over $50,000.”
When athletic booster club board members reviewed paper bank statements going back for a number of years, “they found hundreds of unauthorized payments to credit cards, banks loans, car payments, spa days and many others that were made by the current treasurer of the club, Tiffany Gomes,” the social media post reads.
At the sheriff’s request, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation assisted the Oglethorpe County Sheriff’s Office with the probe of missing funds due to the volume of transactions involved.
“On Oct. 24, the GBI met with Tiffany Gomes about the financial transactions and her appropriating money from the athletic booster account for her own use,” the OCSO post reads. “To her credit, she owned up to all of it.”
The investigation is ongoing and additional charges are forthcoming.
The sheriff’s office reports Gomes’ ex-husband and children did not know the thefts were occurring, and booster club officials and members were unaware until the president was contacted by the bank.
“But ultimately the biggest victim in all of this is the children of Oglethorpe County who need those funds to pay for uniforms, equipment, upgrades to the athletic fields and pay for travel for those kids who have earned the privilege to represent our community in competitions,” the OCSO post reads.
At the request of the athletic booster club board, the sheriff’s office is assisting with ways the club can implement checks and balances as well as oversights to prevent this from occurring again.
“Hopefully the community can come together to help pay for the items needed by the children of our community,” the social media post states.
