Two sentenced in Mustang Ranch brothel racketeering case

Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2000 | 9:42 a.m.

Former bookkeeper Joanne Olcese and former brothel lawyer Peter Perry were sentenced Monday by U.S. District Judge Howard McKibben.

Olcese pleaded guilty to participating in a scheme that prosecutors said shipped more than $4 million from the brothel out of the country without being taxed.

She was sentenced to six months of home confinement, three years' probation and fined $7,500.

Perry pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud.

He will serve six months at a halfway house, six months under house arrest and pay a $20,000 fine. He was also ordered to perform 100 hours of community service.

Olcese and Perry were named along with notorious brothel boss Joe Conforte, former Storey County Commissioner Shirley Colletti and others in a 33-count federal indictment handed up in 1998.

Prosecutors charged that operators at the bordello east of Reno were a front to hide Conforte's continued ownership after the Mustang Ranch was sold at an Internal Revenue Service auction a decade ago.

Conforte fled the country to avoid tax evasion charges and is believed to be in hiding in South America.

Colletti, a former madam at the brothel, and the companies allegedly fronting for Conforte were convicted by a federal jury in July.

The are scheduled for sentencing in March.

Federal officials closed and padlocked the brothel in August and are maintaining it until McKibben decides whether it should be forfeited to the federal government.