This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
A Utah County businessman who posed as a Mormon official in order to dupe companies out of more than a million dollars has pleaded guilty to two second-degree felonies in two separate cases.
Alan Dean McKee, 57, of Benjamin, pleaded guilty Friday in 3rd District Court to theft and pattern of unlawful activity. As part of the plea agreement, four counts of second-degree felony communications fraud associated with both cases were dismissed.
McKee faces up to 15 years in prison on each count when he is sentenced Nov. 28 by Judge Vernice Trease.
McKee's pattern of unlawful activity charge stems from his involvement in a scam from 2012 to 2015, when he and former Utah County Commissioner Gary Jay Anderson, 69, of Springville, allegedly duped companies and business owners out of more than million dollars by pretending to be LDS officials soliciting funds for a railroad project and industrial park on the church's land in Tooele County. They also allegedly sold industrial equipment from a church-owned farm.
Witnesses testified at a June preliminary hearing that the men impersonated church officials, including Gary Stevenson, the then-presiding bishop of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and made up excuses when the project was delayed and equipment wasn't delivered. Each of the phones used in the scam were registered to McKee, but Anderson allegedly admitted to making calls to the victims using a fake name.
Anderson, who is charged with three counts of communications fraud and one count of pattern of unlawful activity, is to appear in court next week for a scheduling hearing.
Employees of the LDS Church's land management corporation acknowledged that they had discussed a rail service like McKee had proposed, which would reach land the church owned in southern Utah County. McKee had been introduced to the church corporation's officials by Utah County commissioners, including Anderson, investigators wrote.
But the LDS officials said the proposal stalled in 2013 as McKee had not followed through with contacts or any concrete plans, investigators wrote, and the proposal never progressed further.
Anderson left office at the end of 2014 and, according to list of facts attested to by McKee, began working for McKee in early 2015.
As part of his plea agreement, McKee agreed to state the facts of each case — including his and Anderson's role in the scam. McKee noted in court documents that after the proposal died, he continued to pretend the deal was on and worked with company owners, who paid him.
In the plea agreement, McKee agreed to pay half of the restitution owed to victims, which totaled more than $1.26 million, assuming that the remainder would be repaid by Anderson. If for some reason, his co-defendant does not pay, McKee would be responsible for the full amount, his attorney Gregory Skordas clarified.
Skordas noted that McKee's plea deal was made independent of Anderson's case and that testifying against Anderson was not a condition of the plea. If subpoenaed, Skordas said Wednesday, McKee would testify.
Anderson's attorneys implied in June that he and his family were victims of McKee — having invested more than $200,000, including about $100,000 from an Anderson retirement account. His attorneys also pointed out that none of the victims made payments to Anderson.
McKee's theft count was the result of a similar fraud he committed on his own while free on $25,000 bail in connection with the pending felony case involving Anderson.
In the theft case, McKee tried to sell pieces of railroad line on a stretch of property owned by the Union Pacific Railroad in Tooele County. He told two different entities that he owned the property in Elberta where the track was located, according to court records.
In May, a Union Pacific Railroad police officer spotted a work crew removing railroad track from the property, court documents state, and the workers told him they were instructed to remove the track by McKee. About 7 miles of track were removed before the crew was stopped.
The financial loss to the railroad company is estimated at between $180,000 and $240,000, documents show. In the plea agreement in that case, McKee committed to pay $302,784 restitution.
As part of his sentence, McKee will be added to the Utah White Collar Crime Registry for 10 years, court documents state. He is being held in the Salt Lake County jail.
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