Local News
Lehi City Streets Superintendent terminated for accused embezzlement of nearly $800,000
Lehi City saw its biggest scandal in modern history with the termination of longtime Streets Superintendent, Wade Allred, who is suspected of embezzling $791,000. Allred is accused of committing fraud with his cousin Adam Lake. Allegedly, the two would create fake purchase orders for road salt and other materials that the City never received.
The Utah County Sheriff’s office has executed several warrants associated with the case. In a warrant dated October 2, 2019 and executed on October 3, 2019, authorities inspected bank records of Vinco Enterprises (Adam Lake’s company) for the time period between May 12, 2014, and September 23, 2019, representing over a five-year span. The Utah County Sheriff’s office detective stated in the warrant, “Adam Garth Lake (Wade Allred’s Cousin), the sole owner of Vinco Enterprises, told me, in a face to face interview, that he receives payment in the form of a check from the city of Lehi. He deposits the checks into an account at Zions Bank.”
Two additional warrants obtained by the Lehi Free Press showed the investigation progressed to include raids of several buildings and seizure of evidence. In early October, the Utah County Sheriff’s office executed a search warrant at the home office of Adam Lake in Enoch, Utah. According to the 4th District court warrant, in the raid authorities seized the following items:
1. Lenovo Desktop Computer
2. HP Laptop
3.
WD My Book External Hard drive
4. (6) Attache Flash Drives
5. (2) ScanDisk Flash Drives
6. Lenovo Flash Drive
In the warrant request to the issuing judge, the lead investigator’s reason for the raid included, “I believe that Adam Garth Lake and Wade Leigh Allred are committing fraud and embezzling the money through Vinco Enterprises.”
On October 14th, the Utah County Sheriff’s office executed another search warrant, this time in Allred’s former Lehi City office located in the City’s water and sewer building. The warrant was requested after Allred called a Lehi City administrator asking if he could retrieve notebooks from his former office that contained information about material loads that were delivered to job sites. The warrant also noted that Lehi City administrators changed the locks on Allred’s former office after he was placed on administrative leave.
Nearly three months have passed since the beginning of the investigation and Allred’s termination The case is still under investigation with no arrests. A denied GRAMA request made by the Lehi Free Press regarding additional Lehi City contracts with vendors confirms the investigation is broader than just Vinco transactions with the City. When reached for comment, Mayor Mark Johnson said, “We would like to see this come to a conclusion.”
The Allred case is still an active investigation and updates will be published when available.
