{"id":1315795,"date":"2019-10-17T21:16:32","date_gmt":"2019-10-18T03:16:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/?p=989484"},"modified":"2019-10-17T21:16:32","modified_gmt":"2019-10-18T03:16:32","slug":"waffle-house-ceo-testifies-in-ranch-embezzlement-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/waffle-house-ceo-testifies-in-ranch-embezzlement-case\/","title":{"rendered":"Waffle House CEO testifies in ranch embezzlement case"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Bear Wallow Ranch is located on Canyon Creek Road just west of Glenwood Springs.<\/strong>
Chelsea Self \/ Post Independent |<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

After Waffle House CEO told the caretakers of his ranch that he would be selling the property, they engaged in a scheme to embezzle more than $1 million, using it to buy hundreds of acres of property.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s according to prosecutors in the trial against Charles \u2018Zane\u2019 Farris and his wife, who between 1992 and 2016 managed the Bear Wallow Ranch west of Glenwood Springs formerly owned by Waffle House CEO Joe Rogers, Jr.<\/p>\n

 \u201cI couldn\u2019t believe
\nthat they\u2019d do this,\u201d Rogers, the first witness called by the prosecution, told
\nthe jury on the first day of the trial Thursday.<\/p>\n

The alleged scheme came to light in 2016 after Rogers\u2019
\ncurrent wife, Fran Rogers, discovered allegedly suspicious checks written from
\nthe Bear Wallow Ranch account.<\/p>\n

Joe Rogers told the jury that the Farris worked on the ranch
\nwhen it the Waffle House Inc. purchased the property in 1989.<\/p>\n

Around 1992, Zane became the ranch manager and a few years
\nafter that, Charla became the ranch\u2019s bookkeeper, Rogers said.<\/p>\n

Rogers purchased the ranch from the corporation in 1997 under Lands West Ventures Inc., but continued using it as a retreat center for Waffle House associates and personal use.<\/p>\n

Many of the ways the Farrises allegedly embezzled money is
\ndifficult to distinguish from the ranch use.<\/p>\n

For example, the Farrises were allowed to keep 25 head of
\ncattle for their personal use, but Rogers said he discovered later that they
\nwere using ranch funds to care for their herd.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey had built a pretty sizeable
\ncattle herd and the ranch was paying the expenses,\u201d Rogers said.<\/p>\n

Rogers announced he would be selling
\nthe property in 2012, and Farrises bought their own property between 2012 and
\n2016.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors aim to prove that more than
\nmuch of the money for those properties came from checks the Farrises wrote to
\nthemselves. <\/p>\n

In opening arguments, Zane Farris\u2019
\nattorney Kathy Goudy said the every so-called questionable check was for a
\nservice the Farrises provided to the ranch.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat you are not going to see is
\none single check written in which Bear Wallow did not receive a benefit,\u201d Goudy
\nsaid.<\/p>\n

As an example, Goudy said Zane would
\nsometimes shoe the ranch horses himself and bill Bear Wallow. That saved the
\nranch money, according to the defense.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir hard work was purchased by
\nthose checks,\u201d Goudy said.<\/p>\n

Rogers testified that by 2016, Zane
\nFarris was paid around $50,000 and Charla\u2019s salary was more than $35,000.
\nBenefits included housing on the ranch, health insurance and participation in
\nthe Waffle House employee ownership program, which functions as a retirement
\naccount.<\/p>\n

In 2012, Rogers told the Farrises he
\nwould be selling the ranch, Goudy said. Zane then \u201cbegan thinking about his own
\nfuture\u201d and purchased land south of Silt.<\/p>\n

Rogers found out in 2016 that the Farrises had moved, and he testified that \u201cthey had basically abandoned their jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n

tphippen@postindependent.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bear Wallow Ranch is located on Canyon Creek Road just west of Glenwood Springs.Chelsea Self \/ Post Independent | After Waffle House CEO told the caretakers of his ranch that he would be selling the property, they engaged in a scheme to embezzle more than $1 million, using it to buy hundreds of acres of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1315795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-06 18:07:00","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1315795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1315795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1315795\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1315795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1315795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1315795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}