Former Club President Charged With Swindling From Medina Little League

MEDINA, Minn. (WCCO) -- The president of a local little league program is heading to court. Investigators say he stole $50,000 from the program.

And they say a man who runs a Blaine business was his accomplice.

In just a few months, their Medina field will be host to more than 600 players and their families. New Medina Little League Club President Mike Mohs and his son will be amongst the crowd.

"I took on this responsibility because I wanted my son to keep on and his friends playing baseball," Mohs said.

The program was in jeopardy. The previous president is being charged with stealing more than $50,000 from the Hamel Athletic Club, Medina's Little League program.

Mohs says they "Look at the books each fall and they noticed some discrepancies turned things over, this doesn't look right, turned it over to Medina Police."

Investigators say then president Ed Leuthner struck up a deal with Eric Vargas, who runs Blaine shop Xtreme Custom Apparel. Leuthner would put orders in for hats or shirts, and Vargas would make a fake inflated invoice. The pair was pocketing the difference.

In one case, investigators say Vargas gave Leuthner an invoice for more than $45,000 worth of baseballs, something the shop doesn't even sell.

The league treasurer caught the errors. Officers charged both men for wiping out the program's entire budget.

"Our focus was to jump in and make sure the program was there make sure it didn't collapse so we've got everything lined up we are on good standing. We got our rules set up and we are excited to play baseball," Mohs said.

Parents pitched in, so they can play on. The two suspects will be in court in March.

The new board of directors came up with a plan to triple check the spending and make sure this doesn't happen again.