Northern Wyoming News - Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years

WORLAND — A Greybull woman charged with fraudulently taking nearly $100,000 from the Town of Basin and Basin Area Chamber was bound over to district court on two felony fraud counts after a 45-minute preliminary hearing Wednesday afternoon.

Danielle Chapman aka Danielle Lampman, former town clerk and Basin Area Chamber of Commerce treasurer has been charged with two felony fraud counts and one misdemeanor count for official misconduct for allegedly, during a nearly two-year long scheme, fraudulently taking nearly $100,000 from the Town of Basin and Basin Area Chamber of Commerce.

Lampman appeared before Circuit Court Judge Thomas Harrington Wednesday. Key witness for the Big Horn County Attorney’s Office was Basin Chief of Police Chris Kampbell.

Kampbell’s testimony followed information outlined in court documents.

Harrington found that there was enough evidence to bind Lampman over to district court for trial on the two felony charges.

According to the court documents, “On or between April 14, 2014, and Nov. 23, 2016, in Big Horn County, did knowingly take or exercise unauthorized control over or make an unauthorized transfer of an interest in the property of another person with the purpose of depriving the other person of the property, pursuant to a

common scheme and aggregated.” The value of the property was $20,410.78 from the Basin Area Chamber of Commerce.

For the second count, Chapman is alleged to have “on or between Nov. 2, 2015, and Aug. 31, 2016, in Big Horn County, Wyoming, did knowingly take or exercise unauthorized control over or make an unauthorized transfer of an interest in the property of another person with the purpose of depriving the other person of the property, pursuant to a common scheme and aggregated.” Chapman is alleged to have taken or exercised unauthorized control over $78,000 from the Town of Basin.

Both counts have penalties of imprisonment of not more than 10 years and/or a fine of up to $10,000.

The third count stems from the fact that Chapman, during the times of the alleged larcenies, was employed by the Town of Basin as the town clerk and treasurer and was the treasurer for the Basin Area Chamber of Commerce. She was hired by the town in June 2011, according to court records, and elected treasurer of the chamber, also in 2011 through December 2016. The misdemeanor is punishable by a fine of not more than $5,000.

According to court records the investigation stemmed from an anonymous letter Security State Bank received on Sept. 21, 2016.

SSB reviewed the activity on the town’s accounts and according to court records “discovered suspicious transactions of money transfer to the BACC from the Town of Basin from May 2015 to September 2016.” The bank reported their findings to Basin Mayor Dennis Peters.

Court records also state that the town’s auditor was unable to reconcile the annual audit for fiscal year 2016 after finding “several areas of concern.” He notified the Wyoming Department of Audit about being unable to reconcile the audit.

One of the concerns was the addition of a line item “economic development” that wasn’t part of the previous budget report.

According to court records, the investigation showed that there were nine transactions of checks from the town of Basin to the chamber totaling $78,000 from Nov. 2, 2015 to Aug. 31, 2016. It is alleged that Lampman returned $18,000 by transferring the funds back to the town of Basin in June 2016.

It is also alleged in court documents that Lampman altered the final town budget after approved on third reading in 2016, adding a line item for economic development in the amount of $22,500, and increased the line item amount for the chamber from $5,000 to $10,000.

According to court documents, “Danielle Chapman was able to use the Basin Area Chamber of Commerce accounts as ‘the vehicle’ in which to remove the $60,000 from the Town of Basin into her personal accounts. In addition to the funds which removed from the [Town of Basin] without authorization over $15,000 additional dollars were removed from the BACC accounts by Danielle Chapman. These funds were [allegedly] removed without the knowledge or approval of the BACC board members.

The court documents allege that from Jan. 1, 2014, until Dec. 31, 2016, “the total amount of money that Danielle Chapman fraudulently withdrew from the Basin Area Chamber of Commerce accounts equals $98,410.78, $78,000 originated from the Town of Basin accounts. The remaining $20,410.78 were BACC funds.

Lampman returned $18,000 to the town and $4,498.50 to the Basin Area Chamber of Commerce.

Court records show that in September 2016, Big Horn Federal closed all of Chapman’s accounts due to “their suspicion of fraudulent activity.”

The investigation also included involvement from the Wyoming Division of Audit.

Lampman, which court records show as living in Greybull, was released on a $50,000 signature bond.

At Wednesday’s hearing, Harrington waived the restriction that Lampman cannot leave the state so that she may go to a medical appointment in Billings.