CHEYENNE - A Cheyenne woman pleaded not guilty Thursday in Laramie County District Court to charges of embezzling approximately $350,000 from the South Cheyenne Water & Sewer District over the past decade.
At the time of the alleged embezzlement, Dena Hansen had been employed by SCWSD for more than 30 years, serving as the general manager since 2008.
According to court documents, Hansen was placed on administrative leave in April after SCWSD hired a forensic accounting firm, Jacobson and Associates, to audit the water district's finances. Hansen was fired in May based upon the findings of the investigation.
According to the Jacobson and Associates audit and an audit by SCWSD employees, Hansen allegedly embezzled $350,000 from the water district between 2014 and 2024 by altering deposit slips.
SCWSD is a tax-exempt entity that provides water and sewer infrastructure to a large unincorporated area south of Cheyenne in Laramie County. Customers make payments in several ways, including paying at a drive-up window, dropping payments in a drop box on the building or by mail.
Hansen was responsible for "development and permit fees," which cover services such as water and sewer hookups, meter fees and permits. It was common for Hansen to have customers write a check for each fee or permit rather than one check for the overall charge, even though the funds went to the same account, according to the report.
SCWSD had both a paper and carbon copy of the deposit slips; the white copies went to the bank, where Hansen received a receipt.
The investigation by Jacobson and Associates determined that the white copies of the deposit slips were being altered with correction fluid and redone so that the total amount of money taken in by SCWSC and then delivered to the bank was the same.
The alterations subtracted large sums of cash from the deposits, then the checks for the same amount from other deposits or developmental fees would be "lapped" into the deposit.
A lapped check is a fraudulent accounting technique where the employee alters financial records to hide stolen cash. Then the employee would take cash received after the theft and apply it to an accounts receivable to cover the crime.
Hansen was interviewed in October by the sheriff's office, during which she denied knowing why she had been fired, knowing there was an issue with missing money, taking work or deposits home with her and ever working remotely while employed by SCWSD.
Hansen denied knowing how any cash went missing in her interview with LCSO. She further denied knowing that deposit slips were modified or that the white copy could be different from the yellow carbon copy.
Hansen made additional claims that the "girls at the front office" did all the work on the customer deposits, and she only dropped the money off at the bank, according to the affidavit.
Further investigation alleges that in 2024 Hansen had taken cash, but had not "lapped" checks into the deposits, as she had in the past.
Search warrants for financial institutions where Hansen banked found approximately $242,573.88 in cash deposits that went into Hansen's bank account between 2014 and 2024, however, she is believed to be responsible for a total loss of $350,000.
The amount of cash missing from the SCWSD deposits in 2014 was relatively small; however, the amount taken from each deposit grew as time went on and was commonly several thousand dollars per month by mid-2015.
Hansen is out on bond, set at $5,000 cash on Oct. 23, and a trial has been set for the week of April 14.