CHAPTER 1: Setting Off in a New Direction . . .
It was late in the summer of 2003 when a nightmare worse than anything the Kamloops Blazers and their supporters could have imagined was unleashed upon the organization.
Hindsight being 20-20, it is easy to look back and pick a date when what had taken so long to build up actually began to come crashing down. Except that back then no one could have known that the organization was like an ocean-side cliff, with the waves taking away its foundation and reputation one grain at a time.
On May 14, 1995, the Blazers won their third Memorial Cup in four seasons. That capped an unprecedented run through the world of major junior hockey. No team had ever had such success in such a concentrated period of time. Considering the number of major junior teams now in existence, no team is likely to have such success again.
The fact the Blazers won that third Memorial Cup on home ice -- in Riverside Coliseum, as it was then known -- made everyone feel like, well, a million bucks.
Hindsight being 20-20, it is easy to look back and pick a date when what had taken so long to build up actually began to come crashing down. Except that back then no one could have known that the organization was like an ocean-side cliff, with the waves taking away its foundation and reputation one grain at a time.
On May 14, 1995, the Blazers won their third Memorial Cup in four seasons. That capped an unprecedented run through the world of major junior hockey. No team had ever had such success in such a concentrated period of time. Considering the number of major junior teams now in existence, no team is likely to have such success again.
The fact the Blazers won that third Memorial Cup on home ice -- in Riverside Coliseum, as it was then known -- made everyone feel like, well, a million bucks.
Sure, the Blazers were in the tournament as the host team, but they also had finished the 1994-95 regular season with a WHL-best 51-14-6 record and had gone on to win the WHL championship, beating the Brandon Wheat Kings in a six-game final. Yes, the Blazers were the host team, but they also went into the tournament through the front door, something that made the championship just that much sweeter.
Kamloops was positively giddy. As one can imagine, there was much celebrating. And there wasn’t any reason to think the run of success would end any time soon. Well, OK, maybe the championships wouldn’t come in such quick succession. But there wasn’t any reason to think the bottom would fall out.
As it turned out, though, things really weren’t as they seemed.
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On June 5, 1995, just 22 days after the organization had won that third Memorial Cup, general manager Bob Brown was fired. Team president Colin Day, accompanied by lawyer Barry Carter of the Kamloops firm Mair Jensen Blair that has long represented the Blazers, went to Brown’s office and fired the most successful general manager in major junior hockey. Brown had been the GM since June 24, 1986. Prior to that, he had been a Blazers scout.
It was time, Day said, to go in a different direction.
“Bob has had total control and made all the decisions the last six or eight months with no input from the board of directors,” Day said. “We have to take back control of the hockey club. We can’t turn it into a one-man show.
“The last time I checked there wasn’t any goals scored by Bob Brown or myself. There was some staff unrest . . . it’s time to spread the credit around.”
As for Brown . . .
“I was pretty shocked to say the least,” he said. “I had no idea, not even an inkling. As far as (allegedly having) too much control, it has never been an issue before. If there was a difference of opinion, usually we worked things out. I guess not this time.”
At the time, Day was the president of a five-man board, the other directors being Andy Clovechok, Rick Harris, Red McRae and Ted Smigielski. None of the latter four was aware that Brown was going to be fired until Day called them on the night of June 4, 1995. By the time Day called, three of the men were in bed for the night; the other was at work and could hardly hear Day’s voice over the background noise from his workplace.
On the day of Brown’s firing, assistant general manager Stu MacGregor, who had worked under Brown since Jan. 25, 1991, was named interim general manager. On June 16, 1995, the ‘interim’ was removed from MacGregor’s title. At the same news conference at which that announcement was made, Day revealed that office assistant Maxine Patrick, who had been with the organization since 1986, had been promoted to office manager.
One month later, head coach Don Hay resigned. Ed Dempsey, an assistant coach for six seasons, was named head coach.
The next season, 1995-96, the Blazers were a more-than-respectable 48-22-2 but bowed out in the Western Conference final. The signs were there in 1996-97, though, when they finished an abysmal 28-37-7 and were dumped from the playoffs in the first round. Yes, the writing was on the wall.
It was time, Day said, to go in a different direction.
“Bob has had total control and made all the decisions the last six or eight months with no input from the board of directors,” Day said. “We have to take back control of the hockey club. We can’t turn it into a one-man show.
“The last time I checked there wasn’t any goals scored by Bob Brown or myself. There was some staff unrest . . . it’s time to spread the credit around.”
As for Brown . . .
“I was pretty shocked to say the least,” he said. “I had no idea, not even an inkling. As far as (allegedly having) too much control, it has never been an issue before. If there was a difference of opinion, usually we worked things out. I guess not this time.”
At the time, Day was the president of a five-man board, the other directors being Andy Clovechok, Rick Harris, Red McRae and Ted Smigielski. None of the latter four was aware that Brown was going to be fired until Day called them on the night of June 4, 1995. By the time Day called, three of the men were in bed for the night; the other was at work and could hardly hear Day’s voice over the background noise from his workplace.
On the day of Brown’s firing, assistant general manager Stu MacGregor, who had worked under Brown since Jan. 25, 1991, was named interim general manager. On June 16, 1995, the ‘interim’ was removed from MacGregor’s title. At the same news conference at which that announcement was made, Day revealed that office assistant Maxine Patrick, who had been with the organization since 1986, had been promoted to office manager.
One month later, head coach Don Hay resigned. Ed Dempsey, an assistant coach for six seasons, was named head coach.
The next season, 1995-96, the Blazers were a more-than-respectable 48-22-2 but bowed out in the Western Conference final. The signs were there in 1996-97, though, when they finished an abysmal 28-37-7 and were dumped from the playoffs in the first round. Yes, the writing was on the wall.
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And then came the summer of 2003.
While the Blazers were planning for the 2003-04 season, a minor change had taken place deep within the organizational structure of the club. It was one of those changes that may never have been noticed had it not been for subsequent events. Ken Almond, the managing partner at the accounting firm KPMG and an appointed member of the Blazers’ board of directors, had retired to the Lower Mainland. The Blazers account now was in the hands of a young accountant named Paul Mumford.
He would figure in the discovery of an embezzlement in which team officials would say about $1.3 million disappeared.
On Aug. 15, 2006, in B.C. Supreme Court, Crown counsel Joel Gold told the court that Mumford, in preparing year-end statements, had gotten a general ledger from Patrick, who had total control over the Blazers’ bookkeeping, processing of office records and accounting practices. Mumford, Gold said, noticed what he felt was an inordinate number of cheques signed with Patrick as the payee.
Mumford proceeded to get bank statements and cancelled cheques. He then discovered that the cheques being cashed at city banks were for greater sums than what was shown on the stubs and in the ledger.
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The Blazers franchise was in the name of Kamloops Blazers Holdings Ltd. The Blazers, at the time, did their day-to-day business as the Kamloops Blazers Sports Society, a not-for-profit society that operated under the B.C. Society Act and with the guidance of a nine-person board of directors, each of whom served on a voluntary basis.
Further muddying the waters was the presence of the Kamloops Blazers Sports Foundation. This foundation operates independently of the society. The society turned profits over to the foundation which, in turn, accepted applications from community teams, groups and organizations looking for financial help in the form of grants. To date, the foundation has turned back more than $1 million into the community.
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Mike Moore had been hired as the Blazers’ general manager on June 4, 1998, and began work four days later. A Calgary native with a master’s degree in business administration, Moore was hired by Day with little, if any, input from the Blazers’ board of directors. Moore filled the office vacated when MacGregor, after three seasons as general manager, left to scout for the NHL’s Dallas Stars.
The Blazers had always required two people to sign any cheques that were written on any of the organization’s bank accounts. Prior to June 3, 1998, signing authority belonged to the president and general manager. In fact, their signatures were on a rubber stamp to which Patrick had access.
However, on June 3, 1998, as Day was offering the general manager’s job to Moore, Day was having the signing authority changed from the president and general manager to the president and office manager. Members of the board of directors at that time have said they weren’t aware that Moore did not have signing authority.
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In an affidavit filed in B.C. Supreme Court on Oct. 7, 2003, Moore stated: “In early September 2003, I received a call from Paul Mumford who advised me that from his review of the ledgers of the Kamloops Blazers, it appeared that numerous cheques had been made payable to Maxine in 2003, with a cumulative total of about $96,000. That amount of money was far too high for the cash requirements of the Kamloops Blazers and Maxine’s net payroll cheques.”
Moore’s affidavit was part of a civil suit filed by the Blazers that named Patrick and her then-husband, Charlie, as defendants. The suit claimed that “between 1986 and 2003, while Maxine was employed by the Plaintiff, the Defendants, acting either individually or in conspiracy with each other, misappropriated, embezzled, fraudulently obtained and converted monies from the Plaintiff to their own benefit . . .
“Based on the Plaintiff’s investigations to date, the Plaintiff has discovered that between June 4, 2002, and May 31, 2003, in excess of $300,000 was misappropriated in numerous transfers from the Plaintiff’s bank accounts by the Defendants, or some of them.”
According to Moore’s statement, he, Day, Carter, KPMG partners Bob Holden and Starr Carson, and Mumford met at the Blazers’ office at 11 a.m., on Sept. 11, 2003.
Moore’s affidavit was part of a civil suit filed by the Blazers that named Patrick and her then-husband, Charlie, as defendants. The suit claimed that “between 1986 and 2003, while Maxine was employed by the Plaintiff, the Defendants, acting either individually or in conspiracy with each other, misappropriated, embezzled, fraudulently obtained and converted monies from the Plaintiff to their own benefit . . .
“Based on the Plaintiff’s investigations to date, the Plaintiff has discovered that between June 4, 2002, and May 31, 2003, in excess of $300,000 was misappropriated in numerous transfers from the Plaintiff’s bank accounts by the Defendants, or some of them.”
According to Moore’s statement, he, Day, Carter, KPMG partners Bob Holden and Starr Carson, and Mumford met at the Blazers’ office at 11 a.m., on Sept. 11, 2003.
“Mr. Day was advised of the findings and concerns relating to Maxine,” Moore’s statement reads, “and he acknowledged that it was his practice to sign blank cheques for the Kamloops Blazers’ accounts on a regular basis and he permitted and relied upon Maxine to administer those cheques properly.”
Ninety minutes later, according to Moore, Patrick was brought into the meeting.
“She readily admitted to taking money from the Kamloops Blazers,” Moore said in his affidavit.
During that meeting, Patrick handed over her office keys and provided Moore with a letter of resignation.
NEXT (Jan. 7): The Case of the Missing Money
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