A former Lehi public works chief has been officially charged with 15 felonies related to theft, communications fraud, money laundering and witness tampering.
Former Lehi City Streets superintendent Wade Allred, 42, was charged in 4th District Court last week with allegedly stealing nearly $800,000 from Lehi City through fraudulent charges paid to his cousin’s company.
Adam Lake, Allred’s cousin and owner of Vinco, received city money for building materials used by the streets department, but the department never received any materials, according to prosecutors. Allred was responsible for ordering the materials and supervising the delivery of those orders, but the charges say he didn’t keep any receipts despite submitting invoices to the city for payment to Vinco.
Lake, also 42, is also charged with 15 felonies related to embezzlement and fraud.
Allred submitted dozens of fraudulent invoices to Lehi City from Vinco over a period of five years, and Lake admitted he prepared most of the invoices for Allred, prosecutors said.
Allred and Lake allegedly were the only two involved in the transactions between the streets department and Vinco. All of the nearly $792,000 was deposited into Vinco’s account, which Lake and his wife had sole access to, charging documents indicate.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars were withdrawn from Lake’s account during the same period while Allred simultaneously made cash deposits in his own account totaling $140,000, prosecutors said.
Allred was fired from his position last fall while the county investigated suspicious invoices brought to city officials’ attention by coworkers. County officials noticed several invoices to Vinco for materials that Lehi normally contracts through Geneva Rock.
A Geneva representative said the company doesn’t use the materials referenced in the invoices and that it would have delivered them personally, not through a third party as Allred had stated, according to court documents.
Lehi City spokesman Cameron Boyle said the city is fully cooperating with the county as it handles the case against Allred.
Allred attorney Brett Anderson did not immediately respond to a Tribune request for comment on Thursday.