From Staff Reports

Former Buncombe County Manager Wanda Greene, who, upon her retirement last year was touted as one of the best administrators in North Carolina, could end up being sentenced to decades in prison after she and her son Michael, a former business intelligence manager for the county, were indicted in April by a grand jury on charges of embezzlement and wire fraud.

The charges — one count of conspiracy to embezzle, steal, obtain by fraud or misapply county funds and 50 counts of wire fraud offenses — were announced April 5 by U.S. Attorney R. Andrew Murrary.

Greene also is charged with five counts of embezzling public funds and aiding and abetting embezzlement.

Greene, 66, and her son pled not guilty on April 13 before Magistrate Dennis Howell in a U.S. District Court. They also requested a jury trial.

 Greene was released on a $500,000 unsecured bond, while her son was released on a $100,000 secured bond. Both are scheduled to appear in court again May 29. This time, it will be for a status conference in Charlotte with Judge Robert Conrad.

 While investigations continue, neither will be allowed to consume alcoholic beverages or leave the Western District of North Carolina without court approval. They must surrender their passports and provide a DNA sample to the courts.

  The charges of wire fraud carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison; the conspiracy charges, 5 years; and federal program fraud charges, 10 years per count. Each charge could also come with a $250,000 fine.

 One of Greene’s attorneys, Thomas Aburgey, told the local news media that Greene is cooperating with the government.

 While allegations have been in the news of questionable lavish expenditures on fine dining and economic development activities, such as the purchase of $150,000 in advertising in The Chronicle of the Horse, a publication owned by Mark Bellissimo who also owns the Tryon Equestrian Center; the charges only concerned the abuse of county purchasing cards.

 As is his custom, Howell read aloud every line of the 38-page indictment.

In addition, Howell read the entire list of inappropriate purchases. Greene was responsible for more than $58,000 in retail purchases; her son, $8,000.

In addition, Greene had either purchased or directed staff to purchase more than $90,000 in retail gift cards. Over a period of 10 years, a total of $200,000 in improper purchases are attributed to the two. 

Green is being held responsible for $10,718.76 in purchases at Target, which included alcohol, a wine aerator, underwear, a lamp shade and soap dispensers; $6,479.03 at TJ Maxx; $1,464.17 at Bed, Bath & Beyond; $1,146.48 at Tuesday Morning; $443.08 at Walmart/Sam’s Club, which included wine, thermal underwear, lingerie, hair dye, a Nintendo Switch video game system, groceries, cleaning supplies, makeup, skinny jeans, and four tires installed; $18,256.69 at Best Buy; $3,572.93 at Barnes and Noble; $2,798.19 at Amazon; and another $13,202.32 at other stores ranging from Toys ‘R’ Us to Vera Bradley.

 Her son is being held responsible for $2,926.87 in purchases from Amazon, $970.77 from Staples, $1,592.78 from Best Buy, and another $1,988.78 from stores like Target and Barnes & Noble. Itemized purchases include 20 DVDs and a ticket to watch “Young Frankenstein” at a New York City theater.

 Greene is suspected of having used other employees’ cards to purchase $705.53 from AT&T; $18,554.35 from Verizon; $4,909.89 from the Apple Store; and another $18,257.12 from other vendors, including the infamous Tic-Tac-Toe wall hanging shipped to her house from Wayfair.

 Both the former county manager and her son were allowed to review and approve their own purchases without oversight. Her son had had his card revoked in 2009 after an internal audit disclosed systematic fraud perpetrated against the county. He paid a $1,600 fine and underwent no additional disciplinary action.

Greene voluntarily surrendered both her county-issued credit cards in 2011, telling one employee she did not want them because use could be subject to public records law.

Greene also ordered employees to provide her with photocopies of their county-issued purchasing cards, and then reportedly used the details to make personal purchases. Among these purchases were two Bose sound systems found in her house under a federal search warrant.

Four county employees were identified in the indictment only by their initials. These people were either guilty of offenses, or their cards were being used by somebody else to make unauthorized, inappropriate personal purchases.

 Thickening the plot, serious charges were made with a card issued to a former Buncombe County commissioner, whose name has not been released. All commissioners who were serving at the time have either said they did not make any inappropriate purchases — or that they were cooperating with investigators.

 The mystery commissioner’s card was used to purchase cheese, chips, onions, prosciutto, crackers, beef tenderloin, lamb, crab meat, strip steak, oysters, shrimp, turkey, roses, oranges, garlic, peas, romaine hearts, silver bracelets, amethyst rings, vitamins, coffee, bath towels, a scale, napkins, toiletries, an iron skillet and a 6-foot table.

 During her last week of employment, Wanda turned over $14,400 in gift cards to county Budget Director Diane Price.

 When the county Board of Commissioners received their 2017 audit, presenter Ed Towson of Gould Killian CPA Group explained, “It’s not known because the investigation is not complete – but it’s our understanding that in the questionable transactions involving [purchasing] cards, there were, in fact, two or more people involved. Now, it has kind of an ugly name in accounting. We call that collusion.

 “And you think of it usually as two people that participate in an activity where they both benefit. And that’s not the case. Sometimes, collusion is inadvertent. There’s so much trust in an individual that a person does what they’re instructed to do, and we suspect that some of that occurred. And then, sometimes, collusion can occur simply because the person has some fear or other worry about their job or something that could happen. And so, when we get to that point, then there’s a little bit of a problem, which is the system of internal control on the preventive side is undermined. This is often called override of internal control.”

Buncombe County, under new County Manager Mandy Stone, is continuing to set policy and pass ordinances to prevent incidents like this from happening again.