Booster Treasurer Charged After $411,761 Left a Healthy Ledger

Julie Hanway Molina, 56, was arrested Sept. 10 at her Aliso Viejo home and charged with diverting $411,761.54 from a high school football nonprofit. FBI agents, with Orange County sheriff’s deputies, took her into custody on four counts of wire fraud.

She pleaded not guilty and was released on a $10,000 bond, U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesman Ciaran McEvoy said Sept. 11. Trial is set for Nov. 2 before U.S. District Judge Mónica Ramírez Almadani in Santa Ana.

FBI Agents Took Her From an Aliso Viejo House

The indictment, returned by a federal grand jury on Sept. 2, does not name the victim on the face of the charging paper. It describes a volunteer nonprofit whose purpose was to “promote and enhance a high school football program through responsibly raising and managing funds, coordinating effective team-building activities, and supporting all student players’ growth and development.”

McEvoy said the case is about The Wolverine Football Club, the Laguna Niguel 501(c)(3) that supports Aliso Niguel High School football. FBI Los Angeles posted the arrest the same afternoon and tagged the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

The former Treasurer for an Orange County high school football booster club was arrested by FBI Agents this morning in Aliso Viejo, assisted by the Orange County Sheriff's Department.

Julie Hanway Molina, 56, was charged in an indictment returned by a federal grand jury with… pic.twitter.com/Eu6GWpBtUY

— FBI Los Angeles (@FBILosAngeles) September 10, 2026

First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli put the charge in community terms, not in Wall Street ones. The dollar figure is modest by federal fraud standards and large inside a parent-run sports club.

We’re going after all fraud, big or small.

Bill Essayli, First Assistant U.S. Attorney, Central District of California, in a social media posting

Essayli also said the case is a big deal to the local community because students and parents worked hard to raise the money. If convicted, Molina faces up to 20 years in federal prison on each count, plus forfeiture of property tied to the funds. She has not been convicted of anything.

THE CHARGING CALENDAR

1. Sept. 2, 2026: A federal grand jury returns a four-count wire-fraud indictment.
2. Sept. 10, 2026: FBI agents arrest Molina at her Aliso Viejo home, with Orange County sheriff’s deputies assisting.
3. Sept. 11, 2026: McEvoy says she has pleaded not guilty and been released on $10,000 bond.
4. Nov. 2, 2026: Trial is set in Santa Ana before Judge Ramírez Almadani.

The FBI said it is investigating. Molina’s lawyer was not available when McEvoy’s office described the plea.

What the Four Wire Counts Say She Did

Prosecutors say Molina, as treasurer, ran a scheme from 2023 through November 2025 that pulled club money into her own bills. The indictment lists her duties as receiving dues, co-signing checks, making board-approved disbursements, keeping records of receipts and expenditures, and giving financial statements to the board. One count is a bank wire. The other three are emails.

THE FOUR COUNTS

• June 23, 2023 wire: $131,523.54 leaves the club’s Farmers and Merchants Bank account in Laguna Hills, travels through Federal Reserve facilities in New Jersey and Texas, and lands at a Mr. Cooper account in Santa Ana to pay the delinquent balance on Molina’s home mortgage. McEvoy said Mr. Cooper is the mortgage company.
• Aug. 21 email: A message with a false report of the club’s bank balances travels from California through a Washington server.
• Oct. 30 email: A second false-balance report takes the same interstate path.
• Nov. 26 email: A third false report is sent on that route. The indictment as described does not state the calendar year for those three dates.

Prosecutors say the emails hid unauthorized payments that totaled $411,761.54, including credit-card bills as well as the mortgage. Interstate routing is what makes the alleged theft a federal wire case instead of a local one.

The 2024 Return Still Showed $368,193

The Wolverine Football Club has filed as a tax-exempt charity since August 2019 under EIN 33-0653372. the club’s IRS Form 990 filings for the years she is listed as treasurer do not read like a club that had just been drained.

Net assets rose through the period prosecutors now call a fraud window. The 2023 return closed with a $76,600 surplus. The 2024 return, filed May 13, 2025, closed with $368,193 in net assets and $387,943 in total assets. Molina is on that return as treasurer, unpaid, beside President Cameron Rossman, Vice President Carol Caito, and Secretary Raechl Kynor.

WOLVERINE FOOTBALL CLUB 990S

The $131,523.54 mortgage wire on June 23, 2023, equals about 46 percent of that year’s reported revenue. Expenses on the 2023 return actually fell from 2022, to $211,055 from $288,094. A six-figure outflow that paid a personal loan should have shown up as a hole in cash unless the books and the bank were not being matched.

The 2024 filing landed in May 2025. Prosecutors say the scheme continued through November 2025. In other words, the last public return still named her as treasurer and still showed a healthy balance sheet while, on the government’s telling, money was still leaving.

Board Members Received the Treasurer’s Own Reports

The indictment’s concealment theory is simple. Molina emailed the board false treasurer reports that left the diverted funds off the page. Co-signing checks and board-approved disbursements were on her job list. The reports the board received were, prosecutors say, her documents.

That is the working problem in a parent club that handles this much cash. Four unpaid officers appear on the later 990s. There is no executive pay line. There is no professional fundraising fee. The finance function sat with the volunteer who also, Essayli said, works as a CPA.

A club that closed 2024 with $368,193 in net assets is not running on car-wash bills. 2024 revenue was $229,861, and $133,826 of that was contributions. Program service revenue, the dues-and-fees side, was $96,035. Parents in south Orange County are funding a small treasury, then handing the keys to whoever will take the treasurer job.

Other Clients Were Told to Check Their Books

Essayli told local television that Molina is a professional CPA and that investigators have concerns about other possible victims. He said people who have done business with her should check their books. That warning sits outside the football case. It is also the part of the arrest that reaches past Friday night lights.

This defendant was entrusted by the community with safeguarding money raised for young adults. She violated that trust and is now a charged felon.

Bill Essayli, First Assistant U.S. Attorney, Central District of California

He said prosecutors would seek a federal prison sentence. Molina has pleaded not guilty, so that sentence is a request, not a result. The CPA point, if it holds, explains how a treasurer could keep a board comfortable while a mortgage company in Santa Ana was paid out of Laguna Hills.

Angela Dimitrov, a parent on campus for back-to-school night, said she was shocked and that she learned of the case from her son. Tony Delmarmol, whose daughter played soccer at the school, said families already spend a lot of money to keep kids in sports. Aliso Viejo Mayor Max Duncan said the funds were meant for young athletes at Aliso Niguel and that volunteers are now dealing with an alleged betrayal of that trust.

Capistrano Unified Calls the Booster a Separate Entity

A Capistrano Unified School District spokesperson said Molina was never a district employee and that the booster club is a separate entity. That is the standard California setup. The 501(c)(3) raises and spends on its own EIN. The campus gets the helmets, travel, and extras. The district does not keep the books.

The club put a message on the club’s homepage above the slogan “Football First. Family Always. Community Forever.” It is short on numbers and long on process.

The Wolverine Football Club is aware of the recent developments regarding the former treasurer. We have been cooperating fully with law enforcement throughout this process and will continue to do so. Because this is an active legal matter, we are unable to comment on the details at this time. Our current board remains focused on supporting our student-athletes and moving the football program forward.

The Wolverine Football Club, homepage statement

Cooperation is how a case like this usually starts: a board member, a bank, or a new officer notices a gap and calls someone. The alleged window still ran from 2023 through November 2025. Molina first appears as treasurer on the 2022 return, filed June 16, 2023, a week before the mortgage wire. Rebecca Procsal held the job on the 2021 return.

KABC spoke with Molina’s husband after agents drove her away. He is not charged. He said he had no idea.

WHAT WE KNOW

• The plea: Molina has pleaded not guilty to four wire-fraud counts and is free on $10,000 bond, with trial set for Nov. 2.
• The largest listed transfer: The indictment describes a $131,523.54 wire on June 23, 2023, to Mr. Cooper for her mortgage.
• The public books: IRS filings still listed her as unpaid treasurer and showed $368,193 in net assets at the end of 2024.
• The school district: Capistrano Unified says she was not an employee and that the booster is a separate legal entity.

WHAT IS UNCONFIRMED

• Other victims: Essayli said there may be other clients; no second case has been charged in the papers described so far.
• The 990 balances: Prosecutors have not said in the public charging summary whether the asset figures sent to the IRS were themselves false.
• The email year: The three false-report counts are dated Aug. 21, Oct. 30, and Nov. 26 without a year attached in the descriptions released.

The open questions are the ones a trial can close. They are also the ones every other booster board in Orange County can answer for itself by pulling bank statements instead of waiting on a treasurer PDF.

Illinois Already Saw a Treasurer Move the Mail

People looking at a high school football club with $387,943 in assets at year-end 2024 keep asking how youth sports holds that kind of cash. It holds it because dues, sponsorships, and parent contributions in a place like Aliso Viejo add up, and because California booster clubs are built to sit off the district ledger. The money is real. The controls are whoever volunteered.

That pattern is not unique to Orange County. In February, Shondra McLarty, 55, a Rockford, Ill., tumbling-club treasurer, pleaded guilty to stealing booster funds of more than $34,000. She used the club debit card and club checks for personal bills and, the plea says, moved the club’s bank mail to her house so the statements would not land in front of anyone else.

Different sport, different dollar figure, same job title. A volunteer treasurer with the debit card, the password, and the board’s trust can empty an account in small bites or in one mortgage wire. The Wolverine case is the large-dollar version of that opening, alleged in a club whose own tax returns still looked fine.

Molina goes to trial on Nov. 2 on the four wire counts. She has pleaded not guilty. The club says it is still raising money for the players who were supposed to be on the receiving end of that $411,761.54.

Disclaimer: This article is news reporting on a federal indictment, public IRS filings, and official statements. It is for information only and is not legal advice, a finding of guilt, or a prediction of sentence. Julie Hanway Molina has pleaded not guilty and is presumed innocent unless a court convicts her. Anyone with a related legal question should consult a licensed criminal-defense attorney. Dollar figures, charges, and dates reflect the indictment, court statements, and records cited above and may change as the case moves.