Wednesday, July 7, 1999 | 10:22 a.m.
RENO -- A former madam turned county commissioner was part of a "large conspiracy of greedy people" who worked to hide the true ownership of the Mustang Ranch brothel, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.
The fraud and racketeering trial of Shirley Colletti and the A.G.E. Corp. was expected to go to a U.S. District Court jury today for deliberations on 33 counts of racketeering, conspiracy, wire fraud and bankruptcy fraud.
The government alleges that notorious brothel boss Joe Conforte arranged to purchase the Mustang Ranch and other assets seized by the Internal Revenue Service by fraudulently using two companies know as Mustang Properties Inc. and A.G.E. Corp. as fronts for his ownership.
"This is a large conspiracy of greedy people who worked to assist Joe Conforte in his maniacal attempt to avoid paying the IRS," U.S. Attorney Michael Barr said.
Barr said the case is simple: Conforte used "shills, straw men and fronts to cheat the government."
Colletti was arrested at the Mustang Ranch last August. Conforte, indicted but not on trial in these proceedings, remains a fugitive who is believed to be in South America.
Colletti, a longtime friend of Conforte, is still employed by A.G.E. as the financial consultant for the brothel. The federal indictment accused Conforte of using current employees of A.G.E. to make checks and wire transfers totaling more than $4 million to Conforte's representatives from 1993 through 1996.
"There should be little doubt she knew what she was doing. She was stealing for Joe Conforte," Barr said.
But Colletti's lawyer asked jurors to remember that the government's case rests on a cast of tarnished characters including former Conforte attorney Peter Perry, who pleaded guilty to wire fraud and is awaiting sentencing.
David Houston, representing Colletti, agreed that most of the witnesses called by the government in the two-week trial were greedy, but denied there was a conspiracy.
"Shirley Colletti wasn't involved with a conspiracy because a conspiracy doesn't exist," Houston said during his closing statements.
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