Woman admits to selling ‘discounted’ Utah ski tickets purchased with stolen credit cards

SALT LAKE CITY — A South Carolina woman has been convicted of buying Ikon and Epic ski and snowboard passes and other lift passes for Utah resorts using stolen credit cards and then reselling those passes at “discounted” prices.

Jamilla Greene, 34, of Fort Mill, South Carolina, was charged in federal court on Dec. 1 with conspiracy to commit wire fraud. During an initial appearance in federal court on Tuesday, she pleaded guilty to the charge. She is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 24.

Greene engaged in a scheme with others to defraud victims “through the sale of ‘discounted’ ski passes without authorization, including Ikon ski passes offered through Alterra Mountain Company, Epic ski passes offered through Vail Resorts, Inc., and individual resort access ski passes,” charging documents state.

Ikon passes can be used at Deer Valley, Solitude, Brighton, Alta, Snowbird, and Snowbasin, and Epic passes allow access to Park City, according to prosecutors.

“None of these resorts authorized Greene to sell discounted’ passes,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Utah said.

Starting about January 2020 and running through June 2024, a group would advertise discount ski passes on KSL Classifieds, Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, or simply through word of mouth, and then communicate with potential buyers through text, email or direct messaging. Using stolen credit cards or credit card numbers, the suspects would purchase a ski pass, and then sell them at “discounted” prices to customers who would pay using Venmo, Zelle, PayPal, Apple Cash or similar methods, according to a federal search warrant served by the U.S. Postal Inspector in November of 2024.

“Due to the complexity of the scheme, there are potentially four separate intended victims per each transaction. The first victim is the bank card holder whose bank card was unlawfully used. The second victim is the bank card company. The third victim is the venue and/or resort. The fourth victim is the individual who attempted to obtain the discounted ticket,” the warrant states.

Investigators say in 2023, Brighton Ski Resort noticed a high number of “chargebacks,” or credit card transactions that were cancelled after buying a ski pass.

“During their internal review, Brighton Ski Resort linked over $50,000 in chargebacks between January 2023 and April 2023,” the warrant states.

The resort identified a common user profile in their ticketing portal who was purchasing numerous lift passes. Then, on March 9, 2023, resort officials identified two people skiing that day who had purchased tickets under that profile name. Unified police were called, located and questioned the two skiers.

The skiers said they contacted a man through a “friend of a friend” who had previously purchased discounted passes through the same method. They said they bought two discounted Ikon passes from the man. But about a month later, the ticket buyers said their Ikon passes were “revoked and they received an email from Alterra Mountain Company (parent company of Ikon) stating the credit card holder associated with the pass purchase had filed a dispute with the credit card company,” according to the warrant.

When the victims contacted the man who sold them the tickets about the pass being revoked, he offered an alternative and said he would provide a ski pass to any resort in the United States whenever they wanted to go. That’s when the victims ended up at Brighton on March 9, 2023, the warrant says.

“Brighton Ski Resort reported the additional information to Unified Police Department, which began an investigation into the fraudulent chargebacks and obtained various search warrants and subpoenas related to the users and accounts involved in the scheme,” according to the warrant.

On Tuesday, Salt Lake County Sheriff Rosie Rivera called the resulting investigation “the largest case of fraud that the sheriff’s office has investigated since reinstating our law enforcement bureau.” The Unified police detectives investigating the case became Salt Lake County sheriff’s detectives again last year.

In a prepared statement, the U.S. Attorney’s Office of Utah said Greene shared the money she received from people buying “discounted” ski passes “with her coconspirators.” The investigation into the coconspirators continued on Wednesday.

“This multi-year, multimillion-dollar scheme not only victimized Utah ski resorts, skiers and snowboarders, and individuals whose bank card information was stolen, but could impact the trust of snow enthusiasts who seek passes annually to visit our resorts,” said U.S. Attorney Melissa Holyoak of the District of Utah.

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