Joel Caswell faces 23 federal charges after April 18 arrest; Rogue Valley businesses, residents have long history of court cases with the 30-year-old

Before he was indicted on nearly two dozen charges for allegedly spending federal COVID-relief money on professional Ultimate Frisbee teams he owned, a businessman and contractor from Jacksonville was already facing serious issues with the leagues he operated in.

Joel Matthew Caswell, 30, was indicted last month on a host of federal charges, including wire fraud, tax evasion and aggravated identity theft. Prosecutors say he abused the Paycheck Protection Program and Economyic Injury Disaster Loan funds, falsely receiving $224,000 in federal money meant to help struggling businesses during the pandemic. He was released on the same day of his arrest, April 18, and awaits trial.

Former business partners and associates from around the state said they weren’t surprised by Caswell’s arrest. They recounted in interviews with the Rogue Valley Times last month more than a decade of experiences and court cases with the man.

Local businesses told the Times about encounters dating as far back as 2013 when then-19-year-old Caswell registered his first business entity, South Bay Logging. Contacted several times by the Times, Caswell has not responded to voicemail or text messages seeking comment.

Caswell, a former professional Ultimate Frisbee player, was CEO of Pearl Sports Group until 2024. That company owned two semi-professional Ultimate Frisbee teams in Portland — the Portland Nitro, which played in the Ultimate Frisbee Association, and the Oregon Onyx, in the Western Ultimate League.

Ultimate Frisbee, also known simply as Ultimate, is a fast-paced field sport similar to soccer or hockey. Prosecutors say some of the money Caswell received, about $70,000, was used to rent Providence Park in Portland for the teams’ home games. Caswell was also a player on the Nitro, scoring 13 goals during his two seasons.

Formed in 2022, the Onyx played two seasons in the WUL, a semi-professional women’s league that operates across the western United States, with teams in Oregon, Washington, California, Utah, Colorado, and Arizona.

But it didn’t take long, league officials said, before problems became apparent with Caswell’s teams. Players weren’t getting paid, violating the terms of Pearl Sports Group’s contract with the league and its players. Players were forced to pay for their own airplane tickets, rental cars and hotels when playing away games, then wouldn’t be reimbursed for weeks or months.

The issue came to a head when players began publicly posting on social media about lack of payment, saying players were out hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars.

Aly Steinfeld, head of marketing for WUL, said the league attempted to get the issue rectified with Caswell several times, but eventually voted to remove Caswell and his teams from the league altogether.

Caswell shuttered Oregon Onyx in 2023 and sold the Portland Nitro to new owners Darci Fredricks and Bill Freeman in 2024. The team has been rebranded as the Oregon Steel.

Under the newly created Oregon Ultimate Alliance, Fredricks and Freeman started their own WUL team, Oregon Soar, which currently plays at the former Concordia University campus in East Portland.

“The Oregon Soar represents a fresh chapter for women’s professional ultimate in the state, with new ownership steering the team’s direction,” the new team wrote on its official blog shortly after forming. “While Oregon has seen other WUL teams take the field in the past, Soar is ready to carve out its own legacy in the league.”

Caswell’s trial is scheduled to begin June 24 in U.S. District Court in Eugene.

The Rogue Valley Times is a partner with Your Oregon News and contributed to this report.