Separate Superseding Indictment Charges Former County
Manager with Multiple Tax Violations
ASHEVILLE, N.C. – Today, a federal grand jury in Asheville
returned a criminal bill of indictment, charging three former top Buncombe
County officials, Wanda Skillington Greene, 67, Jon Eugene Creighton, 66, and
Amanda (Mandy) Louise Stone, 59, all of Buncombe County, with wire fraud and
aiding and abetting; conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States;
receipt of bribes and kickbacks and aiding and abetting; and federal program
fraud and aiding and abetting, announced Andrew Murray, U.S. Attorney for the
Western District of North Carolina.
“Rooting out public corruption at all levels of government
is one of my Office’s most critical responsibilities,” said U.S. Attorney
Murray. “I want to thank the FBI,
IRS-Criminal Investigation Division, and the North Carolina State Bureau of
Investigation for their incredible diligence and commitment to conducting a
thorough and objective investigation, which has led to today’s indictment.”
“When public officials put aside the best interest of the
American public and choose to line their own pockets, we are all impacted. These type of crimes are at the center of the
fight against public corruption. The FBI
is dedicated to working with our law enforcement partners in the Western
District of North Carolina to root out public corruption at any level of
office,” said John Strong, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Charlotte Field
Office.
“The SBI considers investigations involving violations of
the public trust to be among our highest priority cases. We were privileged to work with the FBI,
IRS-CI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Western District of North Carolina
to hold these defendants accountable for their actions,” said Director Robert
L. Schurmeier of the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation (SBI).
According to allegations contained in the 32-count criminal
bill of indictment:
Wanda Greene was appointed as County Manager for Buncombe
County (the County) in 1997, and remained in that position until her retirement
in June 2017. As County Manager, Greene
had the authority to approve the awarding of certain contracts between the
County and private contractors, including contracts for engineering and
consulting services.
Creighton began working for Buncombe County in March
1982. From 1985 until he retired in
December 2017, Creighton was the Director of the County’s Department of
Planning and Development. As part of his
duties, Creighton negotiated contracts between the County and private
contractors, and was responsible for signing such contracts on behalf of the
County. From 1997 until his retirement,
Creighton also had a dual appointment as Assistant County Manager.
Stone began working for Buncombe County in the 1980s. In 1994, she became the Assistant Director of
County’s Department of Social Services, and later became Department’s Director
in 2001. Beginning 2005, Stone also had
a dual appointment, along with Creighton, as Assistant County Manager. She held both positions until she became
County Manager upon Greene’s retirement.
Stone retired from the County in June 2018.
An unnamed individual, identified in the indictment as “the
Contractor,” was a licensed Professional Engineer. From the mid-1980s through 2018, the
Contractor was the agent and contractor for three businesses (Company A until
2014, Company B during 2014 through 2016, and his own company, Company C, from
2014 through 2018). During the relevant
time period, the Contractor obtained a combined total of more than $15 million
in contracts with Buncombe County for consulting and engineering services.
During the relevant time period, Greene, Creighton and Stone
used their official positions to enrich and benefit themselves, and, in doing
so, they deprived Buncombe County citizens of their right to the honest
services of the defendants. The kickback
and bribery scheme the defendants engaged in involved, among other things,
multiple, all-expense paid trips, meals, tickets to sporting events, and spa
treatments paid for by the Contractor.
The defendants solicited and accepted these gifts, payments, and other
things of value from the Contractor, in exchange for awarding County contracts
to the Contractor and the businesses he was affiliated with at the time.
Prior to 2014, Greene, Creighton, Stone, and other County
personnel, went on trips that were in some way connected to legitimate County
business. During these trips, the
Contractor provided them with such things of value as expensive meals, wine,
and other excursions. By 2014, Greene,
Creighton, and Stone began to solicit and accept trips, valuable gifts, and
other things of value from the Contractor that were entirely unrelated to any
legitimate County business. The
all-expense paid pleasure trips were to destinations within the U.S. such as
Key West, Boston, Martha’s Vineyard, Napa Valley, and the Grand Canyon, and to
international cities, including Vienna, Budapest, Cartagena, and
Vancouver. At some time in 2015, Greene
prepared a written list of specific places and dates she wanted to travel, and
instructed Creighton to pass the list to the Contractor, which Creighton
did. On June 6, 2016, during a text
message exchange with Creighton and Stone about future trips to be paid by the
Contractor, Greene wrote: “Agent needs to know we love and want pool and dinner
on island . . . . We should think Gulf Coast or Bahamas for January trip and
celebrate Mandy’s birthday at a new place.”
On some occasions, the defendants charged the County
directly for airfare for trips that coincided with official meetings happening
in the vicinity. However, the majority
of the travel arrangements were made using the Contractor’s credit card
information, which the defendants had access to, or, in Creighton’s case, using
the Contractor’s actual credit card. During these trips, the Contractor would
generally charge the additional expenses to his credit cards when he
accompanied the County employees. For
the trips during which the Contractor did not accompany the County employees,
the defendants used a copy of the Contractor’s credit card to pay for any
travel expenses they incurred.
At other times, in order to earn extra rewards points,
Creighton used his own credit card to pay for lodging and other expenses, for
which he was later reimbursed by the Contractor. As another way to help Creighton earn more
rewards points, during some of the trips, the Contractor stayed at separate
hotels, paid for the rooms using Creighton’s credit card, and then reimbursed
Creighton for those charges. In order
for the Contractor and Creighton to be able to use each other’s credit cards,
Greene and Creighton caused personnel in the County’s Human Resources
Department to create false official Buncombe County employee identification
cards, one with the Contractor’s photograph but with Creighton’s name and
title, and the other with Creighton’s photograph but with the Contractor’s name
and a false title as a County employee.
In addition to receiving these all-expense paid vacations
from the Contractor, the defendants also took advantage of these trips to
defraud the County in at least two other ways:
First, the defendants did not use annual leave for these trips, but
rather falsely claimed that they traveled on official County business, and
claimed to have worked for the duration of the trip. This enabled them to preserve their hours of
annual leave, which they later “sold” to the County, thereby receiving monetary
payments to which they were not legally entitled.
Specifically, at various times between 2011 and 2017, the
County paid Greene more than $360,000 for approximately a total of 3,216 hours
of her unused leave, some of which was related to these trips. Similarly, Stone received more than $130,000
from the County for unused leave between 2007 and her retirement in 2018, and
Creighton received more than $89,000 for unused leave between 2011 and his
retirement in 2017. A portion of their
unused hours for which they were paid was related to these trips.
The second way in which the defendants used their trips to
defraud the County was by submitting reimbursement requests for the cost of
meals and incidental expenses they supposedly incurred during their travel,
even though their meals and expenses were actually being paid for by the
Contractor.
Furthermore, Buncombe County often unwittingly funded the
briberies and kickbacks of its own officials.
The Contractor kept detailed internal records of the costs of the
tickets, lodging, meals, and other benefits that he provided to the defendants
on each trip. The Contractor then tied
these expenses to the various projects for which he had obtained contracts with
the County on behalf of Companies A, B, and C.
The Contractor often sent invoices to, and was reimbursed by, the
County, in amounts approximate of those travel expenses, claiming that the
invoices were for the completion of specific portions of the relevant contract,
instead of the improper expenditures.
Thus, by paying these invoices, which often required Creighton’s
approval, the County was essentially reimbursing the Contractor for the cost of
the kickbacks to its County officials.
In addition to the criminal charges, the indictment contains
a notice of forfeiture and probable cause, seeking a forfeiture money judgment
against the defendants in the amount of at least $400,000, which is the amount
constituting the proceeds of the violations alleged in the indictment.
Greene, Creighton, and Stone have been ordered to appear on
a summons. Each wire fraud and aiding
and abetting charge carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a
$250,000 fine. The conspiracy charge
carries a maximum prison term of five years and a $250,000 fine. The receipt of bribes and kickbacks and
aiding and abetting charge and the federal program fraud charge each carry a
maximum prison term of 10 years and a $250,000 fine.
Additional Charges Brought Against Wanda Greene
A separate superseding indictment also charges Greene with
six counts of tax fraud, in addition to the pending wire fraud, federal program
fraud, and money laundering charges filed against her on June 5, 2018, in
connection with a $2.3 million scheme involving the purchase of whole life
insurance policies for herself and other county employees using misappropriated
Buncombe County funds.
The superseding indictment alleges that Wanda Greene filed
with the IRS false federal tax returns for years 2012 through 2017. Specifically, the indictment alleges that,
for each corresponding year, Greene filed false Individual Income Tax Returns,
Forms 1040, which misstated her taxable income, and failed to report to the IRS
additional income she received through her embezzlement and whole life
insurance policies schemes.
Also pending, are the federal charges filed against Greene
in April 2018, for misusing government credit cards to make approximately
$200,000 worth of improper purchases.
All charges contained in the indictments are
allegations. The defendants are innocent
until proven guilty beyond reasonable doubt in a court of law.
In making today’s announcement U.S. Attorney Murray
commended the work of the FBI, IRS-CI and the SBI for their investigation of
this case, and noted that the investigation into corruption within the Buncombe
County Government is ongoing.
Assistant United States Attorney Richard Edwards of the U.S.
Attorney’s Office in Asheville is in charge of the prosecution.
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