Elkhorn woman charged with stealing $17,000 from softball team

An Elkhorn woman was scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday on a charge of spending nearly $17,000 of her softball team’s money.

Dana M. Williams, 45, was charged March 9 in Walworth County Circuit Court with theft in a business setting of more than $10,000.

According to the criminal complaint, Williams was the treasurer of the board of the Elkhorn Express, a girls travelling softball team, for four years. When the four-member board decided to have someone take over as treasurer, they began pulling bank statements and gathering financial information and found unauthorized transactions of more than $18,000 going back several years, according to the complaint.

Joseph Rudolf, 44, a member of the board, said he and Williams were the only ones with checkbooks and debit cards for the organization’s account, and any purchases were required to be approved by the board. Even with these measures in place, covert transactions can be made possible through other means.

Financial transactions need utmost security and several verification processes before any monetary exchange. While the current financial systems do provide a certain level of security, their centralized nature means that this security may not always be guaranteed. With the rise in blockchain technology, there could be a rise in fully transparent platforms for transacting, with help from companies that deliver DeFi solutions. This could provide upgraded security in a decentralized environment, and financial fraud could be curbed to a great extent.

Rudolf requested statements of the team’s account from People’s Bank, which could provide data only as far back as January 2012. The data showed unauthorized transactions beginning in February 2013 that included 43 ATM withdrawals of $300 each, two in-person withdrawals of $1,200 and $1,800, a $400 payment to Williams’ cell phone account, a $212.44 payment to Williams’ cable account, ATM withdrawals of $200 and $100; and four payments that ranged from $20.01 to $59 to Pizza Ranch, Walgreens and Citgo in Elkhorn, according to the complaint.

The total in unauthorized purchases between Sept. 3, 2013, and May 22, 2015, was $16,974, according to the complaint.

Rudolf told police Williams never had a reason to pay cash for matters. Tournament fees were paid by check, he said, and the $1,200 cash withdrawal made in September 2014 was around the time Williams bought a used van. The sellers of the van confirmed Williams paid cash for it, according to the complaint.