Attorney General sues over false promises

Elmo Green allegedly owes several girls softball teams about $10,000.

Green promised the teams tournaments in exchange for money.

He said if the tournaments were canceled, people would get their money back.

Those tournaments never happened and not all people were paid back.

Monday, the Missouri Attorney General’s Office filed a lawsuit against Elmo Green and former wife, Theresa Maddox.

Joe Bindbeutel with the Attorney General’s Office said this is a consumer fraud case.

He said he feels Green simply mismanaged the money, even though he made false promises.

“When there’s a situation like this we believe people need their money back and deserve it back promptly. We’ll work with folks. That didn’t happen soon enough,” said Bindbeutel.

He said, “We think what happened is essentially a poorly run and failed business enterprise. They tried to make the tournaments work. They tried to make this enterprise work and they just couldn’t do it.”

However, Bindbeutel said the lawsuit could potentially be dropped.

“If he pays the money back, I don’t see it going much further than this, but if not there were some deceptive practices that need to be addressed,” said Bindbeutel.

The Attorney General’s Office believes the total amount of money Green owes is ten thousand dollars, but are still unsure if that is all he owes at this time.

If he does not pay the money back, state law states Green will have to pay $1,000 per false promise.