Former Snow King Mountain Accountant Charged With Embezzling Over $45,000 From Resort

A former accountant at Snow King Mountain Resort in Wyoming is facing serious criminal charges after allegedly siphoning over $45,000 from the resort through a months-long payments fraud scheme.

Kraig Steven Ketelsen, who worked as an accountant at Snow King Mountain Resort in Jackson, Wyoming, has been charged with one count of felony theft and two counts of felony forgery. Court records place the total amount tied to his alleged fraudulent activity at $45,754.88. Ketelsen has waived his May 7 preliminary hearing, bypassing the stage at which a judge would have assessed whether sufficient evidence exists to proceed to trial. The case is now heading to district court.

How the scheme allegedly worked

According to court documents, Ketelsen is accused of manipulating the resort's electronic payments system over a period of several months - targeting vendor payments and direct deposit records. Investigations were triggered after the resort manager contacted the Jackson Police Department with allegations that Ketelsen had been redirecting funds while in the role.

The first documented instance of alleged theft occurred in late December 2025. Investigators say Ketelsen uploaded a batch of invoices ten times with the correct total of $132,858.32. On the eleventh upload, the invoice amount had increased to $153,358.32 - a difference of $20,500 that investigators believe was manually added by Ketelsen, with the payment redirected to a separate account.

Within days of that transaction, Ketelsen allegedly sent the same invoice to both the resort's general manager and chief financial officer, both of whom approved it. The invoice was subsequently paid twice, with one payment going to an account linked to Ketelsen.

Arrest and current status

After returning from a trip to Brazil, Ketelsen was met by detectives in his office and placed under arrest. He did not speak to law enforcement. Ketelsen is currently out on a $50,000 bond and has been deemed a flight risk by the court, based on a pattern of frequent international travel to Panama, Brazil, and Colombia.

He is expected to enter a plea deal as the case progresses. If convicted on all three counts, Ketelsen faces up to 30 years in prison and fines of up to $30,000.

About Snow King Mountain

Snow King Mountain is Jackson's original ski area, established in 1936 and the first ski resort in Wyoming. Locals know it as "The Town Hill" - and that's not a slight. The mountain sits on the southeast edge of the city, about a five-minute drive from Jackson Town Square, which makes it a genuinely different proposition to its much larger neighbour, Jackson Hole Mountain Resort.

The resort sits at a base elevation of 6,237 feet, reaching a summit of 7,808 feet with 1,571 feet of vertical drop across 500 acres and 41 trails. The terrain leans toward the challenging end - around 58% of runs are rated advanced or above, with 24% intermediate and 18% beginner. Snow King offers night skiing six days a week, though night operations don't extend to the Summit lift, which serves the resort's most demanding terrain. It is accessible via the Indy Pass.