Ottawa-area teacher faces charges and allegations of fraud in youth sports

An Ottawa-area high school teacher faces several criminal charges after allegedly defrauding a local minor hockey association in the Township of Madawaska Valley.

Wanda Malone, 46, is charged with fraud over $5,000, money laundering, forgery and the use of a forged document, according to a Killaloe Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) media release issued Monday. She was arrested Aug. 16.

In May of 2021, Sacred Heart Catholic High School in the west Ottawa suburb of Stittsville called Malone a “gifted teacher whose energy and commitment are contagious.”

In a tweet the school called her “passionate about the power of sports” to change students’ lives “for the better” and that she “tirelessly devotes time and energy to support her students outside the classroom.” Her LinkedIn profile describes her as a teacher, referee and coach.

But despite her dedication to sports — and helping manage the finances of three organizations — some are crying foul.

The Barry’s Bay and Area Minor Hockey Association (BBAMHA), which operates in the Township of Madawaska Valley and where Malone served as treasurer, did not provide a direct comment on the recent charges.

But an Aug. 19 letter forwarded to CBC News by the association told families about a legal matter pertaining to its finances that was discovered this spring, which had been brought to the attention of the OPP.

“The police investigation has resulted in the OPP criminally charging a member of our BBAMHA organization,” association president Stephanie Plebon wrote. “That person is no longer a member.”

Not the only organization alleging misappropriation

Dave Beyer, president of the volunteer-run Eastern Ontario Rugby Union where Malone managed finances for two years, told CBC his organization lost $12,000 after a long-time and extremely trusted member of his executive misappropriated funds over two years.

In March, Malone resigned from her volunteer position and apologized for taking money from the union.

“Please know that my actions were in no way malicious,” Malone wrote in her March resignation to the organization. “For many years I have been in a precarious financial situation, living paycheque to paycheque.”

Malone’s breach of trust was hard to stomach, he said, especially because the allegedly stolen funds came from families.

“It comes from the young athletes and their parents,” he said on Monday. “[In] both minor hockey and rugby, not every parent has got those means easily available.”

Beyer has filed a report with the Ottawa Police Service, and said he warned a third unnamed organization about her actions.

Malone ‘trying to balance and cover’

In her resignation letter, Malone wrote that she intends to pay back every cent and that she is sorry for her actions.

“What started as borrowing to cover my mortgage payment or pay a bill turned into me slowly becoming deeper and deeper in,” she wrote. “I was now trying to balance and cover. I always had intentions of paying the money back but kept discovering myself further behind.”

A Wanda Malone is listed on Ontario’s 2021 Sunshine List as a teacher employed by the Ottawa Catholic School Board, with a salary of $103,636.

The Eastern Ontario Rugby Union has a volunteer-based financial taskforce that has provided a report on what’s happened and “the necessary measures to take to properly safeguard the money that’s entrusted to us,” Beyer said.

In a March email, Beyer wrote to his members that they may be feeling “betrayal, anger, disbelief,” but that after time he believed “that we will reluctantly accept that this has happened, even if we don’t understand why.

“I would suggest that one of the first lessons we are learning is that many, if not all, of our organizations are vulnerable to acts such as these,” he wrote.

According to the OPP, Malone was released on conditions and will next appear in court on Sept. 14.