Ex-youth football director charged with taking more than $227K in league funds

Attorney general: Money was used for personal bills, shopping, car payments and bathroom remodel.

By PATRICK VARINE
TribLive

The former director for the Western Pennsylvania Youth Football League who resigned suddenly without explanation a little more than a year ago is charged with taking more than $227,000 in league funds.

He’s accused of using the money to pay bills, make payments on a Honda SUV and start a bathroom remodeling job, according to the state attorney general.

Bill E. Spencer, 57, of Washington was the executive director for the 44-team league, which includes teams from Allegheny, Westmoreland and Washington counties, when he resigned in absentia at a league meeting in mid-March 2025. League members would not discuss specifics at the time, but some said the meeting was called in part to discuss issues with the league’s bank account.

In early March 2025, one of the league’s former executive board members sent an email to team representatives outlining his concerns about the league’s insurance policy and its bank account, which appeared to have been suspended, according to court records.

The former board member requested an emergency league meeting, which was held on March 12, 2025, the day after Spencer submitted his letter of resignation.

At the meeting, league representatives learned that there was no treasurer named to its bank account — a violation of the league’s bylaws — and that Washington Financial Bank officials had locked the account on suspicion of fraudulent activity, according to a sworn affidavit.

They later learned that after the league changed its name from the Washington Greene Youth Football League to the Western Pennsylvania Youth Football League, the updated bank account had been changed so that Spencer was the only person with access, and the mailing address had been changed to his personal address, according to court documents.

Jason Rice, the league member who ran the March 12 meeting, said Spencer had admitted that he “(messed) up” regarding the account, but did not provide any other details, investigators said.

The league’s interim treasurer, Tim Moore, began looking through its payment and banking records, and discovered that the league was being charged fees for consistent late payments on its insurance policies. Moore eventually discovered that Spencer had stopped paying their insurance company, and the league’s policy coverage was days away from being dropped, according to court records.

As Moore continued to comb through league records, he began tallying what he believed were fraudulent or potentially fraudulent withdrawals by Spencer from the league’s account. In addition to withdrawals for payments Moore believed were inflated, there were also numerous checks made payable to Spencer and other vendors in 2020, despite the league’s season being canceled because of the covid-19 pandemic.

The attorney general’s office reviewed the same records, and said Spencer ultimately cut more than 180 checks and made five withdrawals totaling nearly $227,000 “that did not appear to be for the benefit of the WPYFL,” according to court documents. Prosecutors said Spencer directly cashed 26 of the fraudulent checks worth nearly $27,000.

Most of the rest of the money went into a Washington Financial Bank account opened solely in Spencer’s name, where 155 deposited checks and two money transfers between January 2020 and February 2025 totaled more than $175,000.

Officials from the attorney general’s office said Spencer used the funds to pay off credit cards and utility bills, and to shop at retail stores, restaurants and online.

Three fraudulent check deposits also were made into a second account, which Spencer shared with his wife Amy, according to court documents. Those deposits totaled $19,600 and were used to make payments on a Honda CRV and a bathroom remodeling job.

No charges were filed against Spencer’s wife, according to court records.

Spencer was charged with two felony counts of theft by unlawful taking and receiving stolen property, misapplying entrusted funds and related misdemeanors. He was scheduled to be arraigned Friday afternoon in Judge Michael Manfredi’s Washington court.

An attorney for Spencer was not immediately available for comment.

In the months following Spencer’s resignation, more than a dozen teams left the WPYFL to strike out on their own, including a group of five Westmoreland County teams.