Buncombe County released documents Friday afternoon regarding former county manager Wanda Greene, who is currently under federal investigation. Among the documents released confirms an internal county audit uncovered 'questionable' financial transactions around the time Greene retired in June. Other documents showed Greene provided the media with inaccurate information regarding payments made to the Tryon Equestrian Center.
Greene is reportedly under investigation for potential fraud regarding purchases made with county-owned gift cards. She retired June 30th of this year after two decades on the job, and shortly after that federal authorities confirmed she was under investigation, but released no other details. Buncombe County confirmed Friday that "through an internal auditing process" it "uncovered financial transactions that were questionable" during the last week of June 2017. On July 6th, Senior Attorney Michael Frue contacted the District Attorney "to initiate a review by State and Federal authorities of the information gathered."
In a story published last year, the Asheville Citizen-Times reported on payments Buncombe County made to the Tryon Equestrian Center that were used to advertise the Asheville Regional Airport at a Florida equestrian festival. The Tryon center handled the advertising for the county. Greene told the Citizen-Times one of the payments to the center was for $25-thousand, with two others that were for less than $1-thousand. But documents released to the media Friday showed that first payment was actually for $125-thousand, while another payment was made last August for $150-thousand that Greene never disclosed to the paper.
Greene has not been charged with a crime thus far.