LAS VEGAS (AP) — A former regional controller with prominent Las Vegas high-rise builder Turnberry Associates has pleaded guilty in federal court to plotting to steal about $5.4 million from the company over a five-year span.
Hope Ippoliti, 51, entered her plea Monday to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, U.S. Attorney Daniel Bogden said. Her plea avoided trial on another 25 charges in an indictment handed up last December.
Ippoliti could face 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine at sentencing July 11. Bogden said she has agreed to pay full restitution to Turnberry Associates.
Ippoliti’s lawyer didn’t immediately respond Monday to a message.
A co-defendant, Turnberry Associates executive Rocco Lazazzaro, 55, is scheduled for trial April 23 on one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, 24 counts of wire fraud, and one count of attempted interference with commerce by threats and violence. He has pleaded not guilty.
Lazazzaro is accused of accepting money funneled to him by Ippoliti from 2007 to 2012 and of trying to use “force, violence and fear” to extort more money from Turnberry last year.
The company is responsible for the four-tower Turnberry Place luxury condominium complex just off the Las Vegas Strip. The development includes 777 residences in four 40-story towers, as well as the private membership Stirling Club.
Turnberry also has developments in Florida and Tennessee, and prosecutors said it developed the Residences at MGM near the MGM Grand resort and the Town Square shopping center on the southern portion of the Las Vegas Strip.
