LEHI — The Utah County Sheriff’s Office is investigating possible embezzlement in Lehi after it was discovered that more than $750,000 allegedly spent on snow removal materials were never delivered, according to court documents.
The investigation began when Lehi Public Works Director Dave Norman was notified that “a work order didn’t match with work performed, (and) further investigation showed that labor and materials related to the street department might never have received construction product that was purchased by the city,” according to a search warrant affidavit filed in 4th District Court.
Norman soon discovered that Wade Allred, head of the city’s Streets Department, the division in charge of snow removal in Lehi and other road projects, had placed orders for road-salting sand with Cedar City-based Vinco Enterprises, the warrant states.
“Dave found this to be concerning since the city contracted their road work through Geneva Rock,” according to the warrant. “Dave contacted Geneva Rock and asked them about their aggregate stock and he was informed that they keep stock well beyond what the city of Lehi could ever need.”
Upon further investigation, Norman also discovered that the owner of Vinco is Allred’s cousin, Adam Garth Lake, the affidavit states.
When a detective interviewed Allred, “he assured me that all of the loads were delivered and accounted for,” the Utah County sheriff’s deputy wrote in the warrant. “Wade told me about how he used Vinco to deliver sand for salting the roads, road salt and other aggregate for buildings and roadways. He told me how the sand and salt was mixed and how his crew had to clean it up, as required by state law.”
But when the detective interviewed four other people, including Allred’s assistant, the heavy machinery operator for Lehi, the crew foreman for the city’s streets department and the superintendent with Geneva Rock, all of them said they had never heard of Vinco and that Lehi did not mix salt and sand, according to the warrant.
The four men also told investigators that Robinson Trucking was the only company that delivered salt to the city and they had never seen a delivery by Vinco, the affidavit says.
When a detective showed the superintendent at Geneva Rock the invoices for road base allegedly purchased from Vinco, “He told me that the amount shown (900 tons) would have been way more than the job would have even been required,” the detective wrote in the warrant.
The detective then interviewed Lake, who allegedly claimed he had been doing business with Lehi since 2014.
“Adam told me that Wade would call him and request product. 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. He said that Ben drove an old dump truck and would deliver the product to Wade and Wade would verify that the load was delivered,” the warrant states.
Lake told police he paid Johnson in cash or fuel and only communicated with him through Facebook messenger or an app, according to the affidavit.
But when the detective asked for more information on Johnson, he wrote that Lake “could not produce anything further.”
“I have made attempts to identify Ben Johnson by using Facebook, local files and DMV with negative results. It is my opinion that most, if not all, of the loads were billed but not delivered. Lehi City showed that the total amount of business with Vinco Enterprises is $791,582,20.”
Lake was unable to provide the detective with any messages between him and Johnson prior to Aug. 22 — the date he was first interviewed by police — “because his previous phone was destroyed,” the warrant states.
The Utah County Sheriff’s Office declined to comment on its ongoing investigation Tuesday, except to say the case would be submitted to the Utah County Attorney’s Office to be reviewed for potential criminal charges once the investigation was completed.
A spokesman for Lehi confirmed that Allred was no longer a city employee as of Oct. 1 and that the city was cooperating with the ongoing investigation and providing any support police ask for, but declined any further statements.
Messages left by the Deseret News on what are believed to be Allred and Lake’s cellphones were not returned.
Correction: An earlier version of this story, court documents misspelled the name of the city’s public works director. He is Dave Norman, not Dave Dorman.