Cops Investigate Refunds At White Pines Golf Club

BENSENVILLE, IL – Refunds of nearly $800,000 at the White Pines Golf Club in Bensenville are the subject of a criminal investigation, according to records.

The club, which includes two 18-hole courses, is a few blocks north of the Elmhurst city limit.

Through a public records request, Patch recently received documents about the investigation from the Bensenville Park District, which owns the club.

The documents are the same ones obtained earlier by the White Pines Community Alliance, a group of residents in the unincorporated area between Elmhurst and Bensenville. The group has written much about the issue.

The park district originally denied the alliance's request for the records, saying Bensenville police were still investigating. But it recently reversed course and released them.

The golf club makes money renting space for weddings and other private events.

The records indicate that the golf club issued $783,259 in refunds over six years. The annual amounts steadily increased from $39,251 in 2014 to $284,192 in 2019.

In some cases, no explanations were given for the refunds. As an example, in 2016, a tournament outing involved a $4,774 refund, with no reason provided, according to the investigation.

Throughout much of 2018 and 2019, the research indicates "heavy" and "massive" food and liquor discounts.

In August, Bensenville police detective Mike Larson informed Joe Vallez, the park district's executive director, about his investigation into the refunds.

He said he found at least four employees had the authority to issue refunds. They all appeared to use the "admin" log-in, so refunds could not be pinned down to one person.

In a May 2021 email, Vallez told Larson that the district had no supporting information for the invoices.

In an email later the same month, Evelyn Struck, the district's superintendent of finance, said her department took a sampling of the invoices. She said all of them appeared to be legitimate refunds for events, mostly weddings.

"Also, the refund may be going to the person that paid, which is not necessarily the person who had the event, which makes it even more difficult to track," Struck wrote.

In another email, Larson said one particular employee took in "significant" cash deposits over four years. He said he was trying to connect banquet deposits with refunds.

He said he would need to verify whether listed refund recipients actually got them.

From 2015 to 2019, the employee's pay increased by more than a third, from $31,827 to $42,675, according to the documents.

Vallez and Larson could not be reached for comment on the investigation. Vallez took the district's helm in December 2016.

In a mass email earlier this month, the White Pines Community Alliance said it has been unable to get documents from the Bensenville Police Department. It said it would appeal the agency's denial to the Illinois attorney general.