Law-enforcement authorities remained tight-lipped Thursday about an investigation allegedly centered on financial irregularities dealing with two recent promotions at the Cambria County War Memorial Arena.
State police and Johnstown police detectives, armed with a search warrant, carried out boxes of records from the War Memorial on Wednesday, reportedly after two fight promoters lodged complaints about the amount of money they were paid from the events.
In addition, the state police seized records from the East Taylor Township home of Jim Vautar, the arena’s general manager, The Tribune-Democrat has learned.
District Attorney Patrick Kiniry only would confirm Thursday that authorities “are following up on complaints by two groups regarding procedures following arena events.”
He declined to identify the groups or what the procedures involve, saying, “We won’t release any details until an analysis (is completed) on the information we have gathered and will continue to gather to determine whether there are any criminal violations. It will take some time, either days or weeks.”
Kiniry said that it would be unfair to all involved to release any information before that.
The complaints allegedly were lodged by promoters of the Fists of Thunder II boxing on May 2 and the Iron Will Fighting Championship, which featured mixed martial arts cage fighting on May 16.
Sgt. Greg Keefer, commander of the Ebensburg barracks of the Pennsylvania State Police, also declined to give any details of the raids.
“There is a sealed warrant. It’s an ongoing investigation,” he said. “There have been no arrests.”
Asked how long the investigation might take, Keefer said “Due to the high volume of paperwork, it will take a while.”
According to the clerk of courts office at the county courthouse in Ebensburg, two sealed warrants were signed by Judge Timothy Creany on Tuesday. They were identified as Location 1 and Location 2.
The county commissioners said that they had learned about the raid from news reporters on Wednesday afternoon. The county owns the facility.
“It’s pretty disturbing,” President Commissioner P.J. Stevens said. “I’ve requested a full report from (authority) chairman Jack Steeves. We want to know that’s happening. We hope the allegations are unfounded. We depend on our authorities to give oversight (of finances).”
Stevens recalled that a professional study in the fall – which called for privatizing management of the arena – had been critical of ticketing procedures and recommended a computerized ticketing/box office system.
“You just can’t run the facility by the seat of the pants,” Stevens said.
The commissioners have decided to have a private company manage the War Memorial and are in talks with SMG Worldwide Entertainment, based in West Conshohocken near Philadelphia, to take over the management.
SMG is expected to outline a business model for the commissioners at a meeting today, Commissioner Bill Harris said.
Johnstown attorney Art McQuillan, who represents Vautar, said again Thursday that his client will continue to cooperate with the police in the investigation.
“Jim has been a valued manager at the War Memorial for the past 25 years. There have not been any problems in the past,” McQuillan said.
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