SHERIDAN — Hamilton County prosecutors have filed criminal charges following a WRTV Investigation into a Greenwood pool contractor accused of taking money from customers and not doing the work promised.
Justin Lee Carter, the owner of Smarter Pools, is charged with Fraud and Theft, both level 5 felonies.
Sheridan Police Department conducted an investigation following a complaint filed by homeowner Jenny Peretin, also a mother of two children.
“This is where we were planning on putting our 35 to 40 foot pool that Smarter Pools was going to install last summer,” said Peretin. “Unfortunately, there is no pool.”
Peretin said she paid Carter $60,000 for pool installation. She provided a copy of her payment to WRTV Investigates.
Peretin said Smarter Pools never did any work on her pool.
“We have nothing,” said Peretin. “We, we don’t even have a hole in the ground. So we didn’t…
PAYROLL & HR CONTROLS (PREVENTING “GHOST” SCHEMES)
Payroll fraud is often the hardest to detect because it “looks” like a normal business expense.
- Segregation of Duties (SoD): The person who adds new employees to the system must not be the same person who approves the monthly pay run.
- Mandatory Vacation Policy: Require all financial and HR staff to take 5–10 consecutive days of leave annually. Fraud often surfaces when the perpetrator isn’t there to “hide” the trail.
- Ghost Employee Audit: Perform a quarterly “Headcount Reconciliation” where managers must physically verify every name on their payroll list exists.
- Self-Pay Blocking: Ensure the payroll software has a hard-coded block preventing administrators from editing their own salary or bank details.