Questions swirl about $ 7.5M pledge for team

Still waiting month after ‘ amazing gesture’

Residents of Kimberley, B. C., were ecstatic last month when they heard that their fledgling junior hockey team was going to receive a whopping $ 7.5- million donation from a Calgary benefactor.

“What an amazing gesture,” one person crowed on Facebook.

“So generous … this will be great for the whole community,” wrote another.

But weeks later, the money has not yet landed in the Kimberley Dynamiters’ accounts, fuelling speculation about whether the Junior B team’s huge windfall may have been too good to be true.

“Everybody is in a very cautionary stance right now,” said Don McCormick, the mayor of the city in southeastern British Columbia. “You hope for the best, but at the end of the day, you have to recognize it may be the worst.”

Hundreds of hockey fans were first introduced to the donor, Mike Gould, 38, of Calgary, on Oct. 13 during a pre- game ceremony.

In subsequent interviews with various media outlets, Gould described his love for the sport and for his hometown.

“This is an opportunity for me to publicly thank the community where I grew up, to pay it forward,” he told the Kimberley Bulletin. “Hockey is everything to me.”

Gould told Cranbrook, B. C., country radio station CHBZ his late mother would have been in the arena to support him.

“My mom would’ve been out on the ice with me that night … and she would’ve just said, ‘ That’s my boy.’ ”

But a post on the team’s Facebook page Monday night by the board of directors stated that the “commitment promised to the Kimberley Dynamiters and Kimberley Minor Hockey has not been received.

“The organization believes that the completion of the season is the main priority and efforts will be dedicated to that purpose. We thank all of the Dynamiter fans and the wider community for their interest and continued support.”

Asked Wednesday if the message was intended to convey that the money was no longer coming, team president James Leroux told the National Post: “Mr. Gould will have all those answers.”

Reached by phone, Gould insisted that the promised gift would “100 per cent” be made within the next 10 days.

Gould said the banks “screwed up” with transfers of money and “didn’t get drafts in time.” He said he also had to resolve some personal issues related to financial support payments to an ex- partner.

“I have all my stuff in order. I can now move forward paying everybody and make everybody happy again,” he said.

Gould said he accumulated his wealth through a mix of smart investments, getting lucky in Las Vegas and correctly matching “five numbers and two lucky stars” in the EuroMillions Lottery in 2008.

A spokesman for the U. K.based lottery was unable to verify Wednesday if Gould had been a jackpot winner. Prize winners can choose to remain anonymous, he said. There is no record of a Mike Gould from Canada among the public winners.

Gould previously told CBC News that he was “richer than Richie Rich” but “not as rich as Scrooge McDuck.”

In June 2009, court records show, a civil claim was filed against a Mike Lawrence Gould for $ 6,300 by Rob Sorensen, the owner of a drywall company in Grand Forks, B. C. “Mike was employed by myself in a supervisory position,” the claim states. “He had access to my business account. Without my knowledge he took tools out on my account ... When confronted he disappeared. I went to the RCMP and they were unable to help.”

In an interview with CBC News this week, Sorensen identified the man pictured at the pre- game ceremony last month as the former employee who was the subject of the civil claim. He said the claim went nowhere because the former employee could not be located.

Gould said Wednesday he had nothing to do with the alleged incident and that the matter involved a close family member, not him.

Asked whether the team had carried out any background checks of the donor before making the announcement, Leroux said Wednesday, “As much as we could.” He did not elaborate.

The team went public about the missing donation because the publicity surrounding Gould’s announcement had hurt the hockey league’s fundraising.

Amid all the questions, one member of the team’s board of directors resigned this week. Mitchell Zuvela told the National Post in an email he quit on Tuesday “due to issues with the decisions being made” by the board’s executive.