Treasurer of Westonka Lacrosse Association charged with theft

MOUND, Minn. (FOX 9) - The treasurer of a metro lacrosse association is facing charges, accused of stealing thousands of dollars.

On Monday, authorities filed a theft charge against George Getsch of Mound, Minnesota. Getsch is a former treasurer of the Westonka Lacrosse Association (WLA). WLA is a youth lacrosse association through Westonka Public Schools. 

According to the charges, Getsch is accused of stealing funds from WLA over the course of six months, amounting to around $43,000. 

Minnetrista Police received a report from a former president of the lacrosse association stating that he was receiving emails from WLA’s bank, Wells Fargo, that the account had been overdrawn. Prior to leaving the association, the former president said he believed there was approximately $55,000 in the account, according to court documents. 

The former president stated that while he was looking through the missing funds, he observed that several checks had been written out by Getsch. He then confirmed with the current president that there was no legitimate reason the account had overdrawn. 

Police say multiple checks were cashed out of WLA’s account and deposited in Getsch’s personal bank account. Officers say there were also two credit card purchases from the account and a Venmo account verification that was set up with WLA account information. 

Officers compared Getsch’s personal bank account and WLA’s account records and learned that starting in Dec. 2022, all checks that were made out from the WLA account to Getsch were also signed and endorsed by Getsch. Most of the checks were deposited via mobile deposit in Getsch’s account. 

Officers compared the signatures of Getsch’s signature on file when he opened his personal bank account and when he was added to the WLA account in March 2022, and they found the signatures to be very similar. Both of these signatures were also extremely similar to the signatures on all the checks that were endorsed and deposited from WLA’s account into Getsch’s account.

WLA is a nonprofit corporation that is run by parents and makes money through player sign-ups, public donations, and fundraisers.