Purchasers of discounted Ikon or Epic ski and snowboard passes in recent years may have been part of a scam.
A South Carolina woman on Tuesday pleaded guilty in federal court to conspiracy to commit wire fraud after she sold “discount” season passes online after purchasing them with stolen credit card information. Prosecutors say the scam ran from November 2020 through May 2024 and included not just the multi-resort passes but also passes to individual resorts in Utah.
This case continues to be investigated jointly by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Office.
“This is the largest case of fraud that the Sheriff’s office has investigated since reinstating our Law Enforcement Bureau,” sheriff Rosie Rivera said in a press release. The bureau was reinstated in July 2024.
Jamilla Greene, 34, of Fort Mill, South Carolina, was charged earlier this month. According to court documents, she worked with several others in the scam.
They would advertise discounted season ski passes in online forums in ski communities, according to court documents. When someone responded, they would communicate with that person via online chats and texts to gather the person’s name, address and other information required to purchase the pass. Greene and others would then buy the pass using the stolen credit card information and sell it at a discount to the online buyer. The buyer would be required to pay Greene directly using an online banking system such as Venmo, PayPal, Zelle, and Apple Pay.
Greene then took that money and deposited it into her own bank account, or those of her conspirators, according to federal prosecutors.
“This multi-year, multimillion-dollar scheme not only victimized Utah ski resorts, skiers and snowboarders, and individuals whose bank card information was stolen,” said U.S. Attorney Melissa Holyoak of the District of Utah, “but could impact the trust of snow enthusiasts who seek passes annually to visit our resorts.”
The U.S. District Attorney’s Office did not disclose how many “discount” passes were sold, nor their value. In Utah, an Ikon Pass provides access to Deer Valley Resort, Solitude Mountain Resort, Brighton Resort, Alta Ski Area, Snowbird and Snowbasin. An Epic Pass accesses Park City Mountain in Utah as well as more than 50 other resorts in other states and countries. A multi-resort ski pass typically costs between $750 and $1,300.
“We encourage anyone looking to purchase an Ikon Pass or lift product from a resort to only purchase them directly from the resort, official pass or resort websites, or an authorized reseller and only when those products are on sale,” said Kristin Rust, a spokesperson for Alterra Mountain Company, which sells the Ikon Pass, in a statement to the Tribune.
Rust also noted that Ikon Pass goes off sale Thursday “and will not be available through other parties after that date.”
Greene is scheduled to be sentenced by a U.S. District Court judge on Feb. 24 at the Orrin G. Hatch United States District Courthouse in downtown Salt Lake City.