GREEN RIVER — Former Green River Main Street/Urban Renewal Agency (URA) Administrator Jennifer “Jennie” Nicole Melvin, 49, was arrested July 14 for two counts of alleged felony theft of over $42,900 out of the Flaming Gorge Days account, and $34,500 from the Green River Urban Renewal Agency account.
The arrest came over a month after the City of Green River announced the cancellation of the 2023 Flaming Gorge Days (FGD), for which Melvin served as the coordinator. FGD was taken on by the Main Street program, which is a 501(c)(3) corporation supported by the Wyoming Business Council. Flaming Gorge Days was to be run by the Development Fund and committees, utilizing the Development Fund Account doing business as FGD, the affidavit states.
According to the affidavit, part of Melvin’s duties for the URA and FGD was to be responsible for receiving donations and paying bills for the URA and FGD. However, in May 2023, Melvin allegedly started to call in sick often, did not show up for work, did not respond to emails or answer phone calls, she was not conducting committee meetings for the URA and FGD, and she was not keeping the City of Green River updated on events and activities.
The Green River URA was placed on probation by the Wyoming Business Council due to Melvin’s alleged lack of communication. As a result, FGD had to be canceled because events were allegedly not scheduled by Melvin and the account was empty.
Suspicious Withdrawals and Payments
Melvin stopped going to work completely in May 2023, and as a result her work-related mail was forwarded to other employees at the city. This included bank statements for the URA and FGD accounts. According to court documents, City Administrator Reed Clevenger reviewed these statements and noticed a large amount of suspicious withdrawals and payments being made from the FGD account “to the point that the account was overdrawn multiple times”.
Clevenger noted that Melvin was allegedly taking a large amount of money from the URA account and depositing it into the FGD account in an attempt to offset the large amount of charges. The charges allegedly included ATM withdrawals from Wyoming Downs and payments to restaurants, supermarkets, gas stations, and clothing stores.
Special Agent (SA) Roy Warren reviewed bank statements of the FGD account for 2021 and noted recurring payments to the businesses Grasshopper.com, Amazon Prime, WIX.com, and Adobe. These same recurring payments were the primary transactions until June 2022. In January 2021, the starting balance of the FGD account was $53,937.61. The ending balance in December 2021 was $48,391.51, and there were no deposits made to the FGD account in 2021.
However, in June 2022, SA Warren observed a drastic change in the amount of charges to the FGD account. He noticed the same types of charges Clevenger had reported seeing, with the addition of charges from Amazon, rental store companies, and hotels. The affidavit states that these charges were allegedly marked as “out of the normal business” by the accountant who reconciled the accounts. Warren did note that several deposits could have been legitimate income from FGD and sponsors.
The court documents state that the ending balance of the FGD account in December 2022 was $4,487.41.
The “out of normal business” charges continued in 2023, along with charges from cell phone companies, Etsy, eBay, and Comenity Pay. The affidavit states that there were several large deposits into the FGD account totaling $24,000.
The court documents go on to state that the “dramatic change” in the amount of charges led to the account being overdrawn multiple times in 2023. The FGD account had a balance of -$345.95 in May 2023.
“Out of Normal Business” Charges
The affidavit states that there were allegedly 61 ATM transactions totaling $21,927.75 between June 2022 and May 2023. Of those, 34 of the ATM transactions were conducted at Wyoming Downs Off Track Betting in Rock Springs, where SA Warren learned Melvin was allegedly a regular customer and had a “player’s card”. These transactions were outside the limited use for FGD.
The charges on the FGD account that were marked as “out of normal business” of FGD included payments to Amazon, Bad Apple Energy, Loaf ‘n’ Jug, Walmart, Smart Style Hair, Comenity, Drinkhydro, TJ Maxx, Mattress Barn, Albertsons, Ross, Flying J, Smith’s, Brian’s Boot and Shoe, OK Corral City Liquor, Foot of the Big Horns, Buttero Italian, Las Delicias, Rose Floral, Hitching Post, Joann’s Fabric, Maverick, Dunham’s, Bombas LLC, Los Cabos, Cke Eves, Apple, Bonsai Sushi, Old Chicago, Gudino’s Cafe, Sally Beauty, Verizon Wireless, SP Sea Witch Botanic, Kum & Go, Fitbit LLC, Chanel, Taco Bell, Encore Shoe Department, Maurice’s, Red Desert Oil Field, Homewood Suites, PayPal payments to Apple, Ancestry, Fabletics, Roku for Fubot, Hulu, Paramount Plus, Netflix, Spotify, and Gap, and multiple overdraft fees.
Between January 2023 and May 2023, there were 216 charges to the account totaling $21,014.80, which included overdraft fees in the amount of $780. Melvin allegedly had the only debit card issued for the FGD account.
According to the affidavit, between the ATM withdrawals and the debit card purchases, a total of $42,942.55 was allegedly stolen out of the FGD account by Melvin between June 8, 2022 and May 21, 2023.
Diverting Money from the URA to FGD Account
Further review of the bank statements revealed that Melvin was allegedly diverting money from the URA account to the FGD account. In 2021, the URA account started with $62,117.70, and the account ended the year 2021 with $112,167.50, as there were multiple large deposits made into the account.
Review of the bank statements for the URA for 2022 showed one check written to FGD in the amount of $4,500. The year ended with an account balance of $76,580.31, the affidavit states.
From January 2023 to May 2023, there were 35 debit card transactions that seemed suspicious totaling $4,648.93, the court documents state. Those transactions were to several different gas stations, stores, restaurants, liquor stores, and more.
Additionally, the affidavit notes that checks made from the URA account to the FGD account were suspicious, as there were no checks previously made to FGD in 2021 or 2022. The court documents state that, “starting in January 2023 through May 2023, the checks made to the FGD account coincided with the overdraft fees on the account”.
FGD was held June 23-25, 2022, which was nearly six months prior to the checks being written, the affidavit says. The checks made to the FGD account from the URA account between January 2023 and May 2023 totaled $22,500. However, in May 2023, the FGD account allegedly had a negative balance.
Downtown Dollars Program
In 2021, the URA started the “Downtown Dollars” program, where consumers could win vouchers provided by the URA to use at businesses in downtown Green River. This program, which was in place from 2021 to 2023, aimed to revitalize Green River businesses after the COVID-19 pandemic. If a business received a Downtown Dollar voucher payment, they could turn the voucher in to the URA and Melvin would reimburse the business using a check.
According to the affidavit, the checks for this program were written from the URA account, and 13 of the checks were written as “Cash”. Some checks had the Downtown Dollars, with or without a business listed, on the memo line of the checks. The only business listed under “Cash” withdraw was Serenity One in Green River, while the rest of the checks were written out to the specific businesses.
Between April 2021 and January 2022, the “Cash” transactions with the notation of Serenity One totaled $3,575. The other “Cash” transactions that had no reference to Downtown Dollars or with no business referenced totaled $3,827.60 during the same time frame.
SA Dan Allison learned other businesses in downtown Green River submitted vouchers recieved to the URA for reimbursement in amounts of $175 to $300 or less per month, meaning that the checks for “Cash” notating Serenity One “far exceeded these amounts”, the affidavit states.
SA Allison learned that Melvin likes crystals and stones, which Serenity One sells. All of the checks allegedly had Melvin’s signature.
Between the debit card use and fraudulent checks, Melvin allegedly stole a total of $34,551.53 from the URA account between January 14, 2021 and May 30, 2023.
Upcoming Court Dates
Each count of felony theft carries a possible prison sentence of 10 years and/or a fine of $10,000. If convicted, Melvin could serve up to 20 years of prison and/or have to pay a $20,000 fine.
As of July 18, the $75,000 bond was posted. Melvin is scheduled to appear at her preliminary hearing in the Circuit Court of the Third Judicial District on July 26 at 10:30 a.m.
