Couple Charged With Stealing Money From Youth Soccer Club: Police

LEESBURG, VA — An Aldie couple has been charged with stealing more than $50,000 from a Loudoun County-based youth soccer club, the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office said Dec. 19. Jeffrey J. Kern, 40, was charged with five counts of embezzlement and his wife, Berkeley C. Kern, 46, was charged with two counts of embezzlement.

Jeffrey Kern was hired by the Old Dominion Football Club (ODFC) as a coach for several of the club's travel soccer teams. Founded in 2002, the club fields 12 high-level travel soccer teams and more than 200 recreational players.

As part of his position, Kern had access to each team's bank accounts, the sheriff's office said. Berkeley Kern, his wife, volunteered with the club and allegedly was an authorized user of one of the accounts.

After officials with the Old Dominion Football Club discovered irregularities with the team's bank accounts, the Financial Crimes Unit of the Loudoun sheriff's office launched an investigation that found the couple allegedly accessed money in the accounts on multiple occasions for personal use between 2015 and December 2018.

Andy Vera, founder and president of the Old Dominion Football Club, said in a statement emailed to Patch that the club wishes to thank the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office and the Loudoun Commonwealth's Attorney's Office for their help over the past year.

"Their support, compassion, understanding and professionalism is to be commended," Vera said. "If there ever was a 'high-road' this past year, ODFC certainly was the one on it."

Jeffrey and Berkeley Kern turned themselves into the sheriff's office on Thursday. Both were released from the Loudoun County Adult Detention Center later in the day on bond.