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LEHI — Utah County investigators believe nearly $800,000 in Lehi City funds allegedly were used to pay for services that were apparently never delivered, according to a search warrant unsealed Tuesday.
The same day, a post from Lehi City’s Facebook account noted that “a city employee has been terminated due to alleged fraud.”
“We can confirm that we are actively participating in an investigation of a former employee regarding these claims,” the post states. “Lehi City continues to take seriously the responsibility of being good stewards of taxpayer dollars.”
Former Lehi City streets superintendent Wade Allred’s employment with the city ended Oct. 1, according to Lehi City spokesman Cameron Boyle. Allred is also mentioned in the search warrant. Boyle would not confirm whether the city's Facebook post was related to Allred. Lehi Free Press originally reported on Allred's termination Tuesday.
No charges have been filed in the case, the post notes, and no charges have been filed against Allred as of Thursday, according to court records.
Boyle declined to comment further, and the city’s Facebook post says officials are “unable to provide further details at this time.”
A city employee alerted Lehi Public Works Director Dave Norman to a “financial issue,” according to a search warrant filed in 4th District Court in Utah County that was made public Tuesday. Details of the warrant were first reported by the Deseret News.
“A work order didn’t match with work performed," the warrant dated Sept. 18 states, and continues that the city's street department might not have received construction materials and labor that were purchased.
Norman found that the purchases in question went through Allred, according to the warrant. He also found that orders were made for road salting sand and some other road-related materials to a company called Vinco Enterprises, the warrant states.
Norman found the purchases to be “concerning” because Lehi City contracts for road work through Geneva Rock, according to the warrant. Availability of product was used to justify the Vinco purchases, but Norman contacted Geneva Rock and was told the company kept stock “well beyond what the city of Lehi could ever need,” the warrant states.
Norman also discovered that Vinco Enterprises is owned by Allred’s cousin, Adam Garth Lake, according to the warrant.
A Utah County Sheriff’s detective interviewed Allred, who said all the materials purchased from Vinco had been delivered and were accounted for, according to the warrant. He told the detective that his department used Vinco to deliver sand, salt and other materials for buildings and roadways.
Allred also told the detective "how the sand and salt was mixed and how his crew had to clean it up, as required by state law," the warrant states.
Three city employees told the detective the city does not currently mix salt and sand. The employees also said the city gets road salt from a different company, and had never heard of Vinco Enterprises, the warrant states.
The detective showed the list of Vinco purchases to one employee, according to the warrant. "I asked him if any of the Vinco deliveries were legitimate and he told me no that he had never heard of the company."
A Geneva Rock employee also told the detective he had never heard of Vinco, and when shown invoices stating that Vinco had delivered products to Geneva Rock job sites, the employee said that was not likely to have happened because Geneva Rock uses its own materials for the purposes shown on the invoices, the warrant says. He also said the "amount shown (900 tons) would have been way more than the job would have even been required," according to the warrant.
The detective also spoke with Lake, who said he had been doing business with Lehi City since 2014, and confirmed to the detective that he is Allred’s cousin, according to the warrant.
“Adam told me that Wade (Allred) would call him and request product,” the warrant states. “Adam would then subcontract to a male known only as Ben Johnson. Adam would prepay for the product and then pay Ben for the labor after the load was delivered.”
Lake told the detective that Johnson would then deliver the product to Allred, who verified that it was delivered. Lake said he contacted Johnson only through Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp, and paid him in either cash or fuel, according to the warrant.
The detective asked Lake for further information about Johnson, but Lake “could not produce anything further,” the warrant states.
“I have made attempts to identify Ben Johnson by using Facebook, local files and DMV with negative results,” the detective wrote in the warrant. “It is my opinion that most, if not all, of the loads were billed but not delivered.”
The total amount of business Lehi City conducted with Vinco Enterprises is $791,582.20, according to the warrant. It is not exactly clear how the Lehi City money is alleged to have changed hands between Allred, Lake and Johnson.
The warrant sought to have access granted to a Facebook account allegedly belonging to Lake. That account has either been made private or deleted as of Thursday.
No charges have been filed against Lake in the case, court records show. He pleaded guilty to a charge of forgery, a third-degree felony, in Millard County in 2011, but the charge was later dismissed, according to court records.
Utah County Sheriff’s Sgt. Spencer Cannon said the sheriff’s office is investigating the case as a courtesy to Lehi City, since Allred was a city employee.
The sheriff’s office is still waiting for more information sought via warrants in the case to come back, Cannon said.
He added that the case is not close to being closed, but investigators anticipate they will eventually pass it along to the Utah County Attorney’s office to be screened for potential criminal charges.
Cannon could not comment further on the details of the investigation.
A business entity search for Vinco Enterprises lists an Enoch address, with "Adam G Lake" as a registered agent of the business.
The business has been active since October 2015 and was first registered in September 2013, according to Utah Division of Corporations and Commercial Code records. The business license was last renewed in September 2019, records show.
