The former director of a Bend youth soccer organization is accused of stealing more than $80,000 from the group.

Tara Lynn Bilanski, 48, is the subject of a new $380,000 lawsuit brought by Bend FC Timbers in Deschutes County Circuit Court.

Deschutes County District Attorney John Hummel said he is reviewing the civil complaint, filed Thursday, to determine whether it warrants a criminal investigation.

Bilanski was fired this summer after six years as director of Bend FC Timbers. She has yet to respond to the lawsuit though she has stated she received the money in dispute as part of a profit-sharing arrangement for overseeing Timbers soccer camps, the lawsuit states.

With its roots as an informal league in the 1990s, Bend FC Timbers was formally incorporated in 2005 and is today the largest youth soccer organization in Central Oregon, according to the 26-page lawsuit. It’s a member of the Oregon Youth Soccer Association and is affiliated with the Portland Timbers professional soccer club and seven other Timbers Alliance clubs in the Pacific Northwest.

Bilanski was hired as director of operations in 2014. During her time with the organization, Bend FC Timbers employed three to five staff members and 25 licensed coaches to oversee two dozen teams competing in OYSA spring and fall leagues. Until her termination in August, Bilanski earned $119,000 per year as executive director.

Earlier this year, in response to what the Bend FC Timbers board of directors called increasing concerns about Bilanski’s leadership, the board asked all members to complete a survey.

According to the lawsuit, the 169 responses largely confirmed the board’s concerns.

The responses included in the lawsuit do not paint a positive portrait of Bilanski as a leader. Parents claim she’s arrogant, vindictive, unprofessional and given to favoritism.

Half of respondents indicated Bilanski “needs improvement” as director.

“Anyone (including parents) who speak out against the dictator suffers the consequences,” the lawsuit quotes a parent as writing.

Board members say the survey results confirmed their own concerns about Bilanski, and she was terminated Aug. 18.

After her termination, the board alleges Bilanski was found to have illegally directed payments totaling more than $80,000.

“Bilanski combined categories of costs and revenue within the annual budgets and other documents provided to the Board in such a way as to make it impossible to detect the flow of embezzled funds she took from the Timbers and paid to herself,” the lawsuit states.

When questioned about missing funds, Bilanski said they were annual bonuses for overseeing Bend FC Timbers soccer camps, which she said were her own for-profit venture for which she assumed all financial risk, the lawsuit states.

“To the contrary, those camps were not a separate for-profit venture,” the lawsuit states. “The camps were run by Timbers paid staff and volunteers and Timbers paid all of the costs associated with the camps and bore all the financial risk.”

The board of directors also states Bilanski refused to return the laptop issued to her by Bend FC Timbers during her employment, the lawsuit claims. The laptop and Bend FC Timbers social media accounts have helped her establish a competing youth soccer organization, the lawsuit states.

In a letter to the Oregon Youth Soccer Association board of directors obtained by The Bulletin, Bilanski calls the lawsuit a frivolous bid by Bend Timbers to prevent her from establishing a competing youth soccer organization in Bend.

Bilanski was scheduled to meet with board members via Zoom on Tuesday night before the Oregon Youth Soccer Association determines whether to sanction a club she recently formed in Bend, Apex Futbol Club.

“It appears to be part of an intentional and desperate PR stunt and disinformation campaign to smear me, keep me from working in the soccer community, and undermine our new club, Apex FC, which is growing and quickly gaining traction,” Bilanski wrote. “(Bend FC Timbers’) desperate and defamatory stunt must not be allowed to succeed.”

Bilanski attached a letter from Christy Schmidt, a former Bend Timbers treasurer and board member who denies Bilanski stole from the organization and that Bilanski’s camp payments were noted in each annual budget approved by the board.

“In the three and a half years I was treasurer (November 2017-May 2021), I came to respect the difficult decisions Tara had to make as executive director,” Schmidt wrote. “I respected that Tara’s main objective was to give as many kids as possible an opportunity to love the sport of soccer.”

A native of Puyallup, Washington, Bilanski previously worked as an assistant coach for the women’s soccer team at the University of Washington, where she played four years as a standout all-conference midfielder in the 1990s.

Last month, she announced the formation of Apex Futbol Club on social media.

“Hi Friends,” she wrote in a Facebook post Oct. 29. “I NEED YOUR HELP!!! As you know, we have started a new soccer club here in Bend, OR, and I could really use some help spreading the word about our Winter Programming.”