Park City Ice Miners, a prominent Wasatch Back youth hockey organization, hopes a lawsuit accusing the nonprofit of refusing to release documents detailing its accounting operations will be dismissed in Summit County’s Third District Court.
Benjamin Arnold, who has three kids enrolled in Ice Miners programming, filed a lawsuit in October demanding the disclosure of the hockey organization’s financial records, as well as board President Matthew Prucka’s personal Venmo statements that Arnold asserts have been commingled with the youth organizations finances.
Park City Ice Miners was established in 2007 and offers hockey lessons and competitive teams for kids under 18. The nonprofit is associated with both USA Hockey and the Utah State Amateur Hockey Association, serving over 200 children. Its home rink is the Park City Ice Arena.
Attorneys representing Park City Ice Miners filed a motion to dismiss Arnold’s case last week, saying the nonprofit has already released all records Arnold is entitled to receive as an organization member. Specifically, they said the records he requested are “far beyond the scope of those permitted for member inspection,” largely because of Arnold’s attempts to obtain Prucka’s personal Venmo and bank account statements.
“The plain language of (Utah Code) entitles a member to copy only … the company’s standard corporate file, its list of active directors, officers and members, recent annual financial statements and company accounting records,” the motion said. “Those records were provided to Arnold as conceded in his complaint. Arnold’s repeated (and ongoing) requests for the personal records of third parties seek information beyond that available to him.”
The motion also said Arnold’s complaint made a variety of allegations “that malign board members,” including claims of Prucka self-dealing, or financially bettering himself through Park City Ice Miners’ monies, “for which Arnold has no evidence.”
The document listed each record the organization has provided to Arnold so far, including IRS forms, the nonprofit’s bylaws, financial statements for 2022, 2023 and 2024, board and committee meeting minutes, accounting ledgers, bank statements, tax filings, member information and an annual report to the Utah Division of Corporations.
“The complaint’s lengthy narrative makes many insinuations against PCIM’s board and its president but fails to identify which records Arnold alleges he is entitled to under (Utah Code) that have not been already provided,” the motion said. “PCIM and Arnold exchanged multiple rounds of correspondence and exchanged significant quantities of PCIM records over the course of several months, but the complaint fails to explain to this court which records remain (allegedly) unfulfilled.”
The motion also decried the length of Arnold’s complaint because of its inclusion of “salacious allegations which are irrelevant” to the case, which should center on the release of the organization’s records, not the financial operations of the nonprofit.
“Arnold’s vague allegations about which records remain denied to him regarding PCIM obfuscate Arnold’s true desire: a broad intrusion into Mr. Prucka’s personal bank accounts and finances,” the document stated. “These records constitute the personal financial records of a board member, and are not required to be maintained by PCIM.”
Arnold in his complaint alleged Park City Ice Miners has repeatedly refused to release financial records that should be available to organization members. Families enrolled in Ice Miners programs are considered members, as well as anyone who donates an annual $1 membership fee.
Arnold’s lawsuit argued that Prucka was the “sole person in control” of the Park City Ice Miners’ financial accounts and reports to the Internal Revenue Service. Prucka has been on the Board of Directors since 2012, serving as treasurer before becoming president, and started filing with the IRS on the organization’s behalf in 2016, according to court documents.
The complaint outlined Arnold’s concerns regarding a personal Venmo account operated by Prucka. Arnold claimed families would often send payments directly to Prucka, and those payments were reportedly not documented in Park City Ice Miners’ financial records or reports to the IRS.
Park City Ice Miners’ motion concluded by asking Summit County Third District Judge Matthew Bates to dismiss the case. Arnold has not yet responded to the motion in court, and no hearing dates have been set.