Former Mustang Ranch madam Shirley Coletti is going to prison for just under four years in a racketeering and money-laundering scheme that probably helped to sink the fabled Nevada brothel.
"I'm devastated because I'm standing here before you and I've never done anything wrong," she told her sentencing judge. "If I'd known it was wrong, I would never have done it."
She begins serving her sentence June 5.
Prosecutors insisted Coletti and others tried to hide they were running the brothel for former owner Joseph Conforte, whom the FBI believes is hiding in South America, according to APBNews. Coletti was accused of wiring payments overseas and staying on the Mustang Ranch payroll while serving as a county commissioner.
Attorneys for the 63-year-old madam argued she was tricked into helping Conforte. Federal judge Howard McKibben apparently considered her public service record in sentencing her to just under four years, APBNews said.
Coletti maintained she never knew of illegal activity at the Mustang Ranch.
