After Virginia Amendola lost her husband in 1999, she was bereaved, tired and adapting to a new life.
She was also the perfect target for a financial predator.
Her husband, Anthony Amendola, had always handled the money. He was once a savvy corporate executive.
In his day, he helped create one of the world’s top 10 advertising agencies, D’Arcy MacManus and Masius, in St. Louis. He also helped Anheuser-Busch develop its brands. He then became chief executive of Pabst Brewing Co. Later in his career, he joined Schlitz as a vice president. Then he retired to Rancho Mirage, Calif.
He had a bad heart, but two heart transplants extended his life. His wife nursed him through both of these operations over 15 years. He kept himself busy by working on a nationwide donor-awareness campaign called “Pledge Your Heart, I Have.” But eventually, his time came.
After Virginia Amendola buried her husband in his native New York, she wanted to be near one of her daughters, so she moved to Castle Rock.
When she needed help dealing with a trust, she asked her daughter to find a lawyer. Her daughter asked her insurance agent. The agent recommended an attorney named Arnold Guttenberg.
Guttenberg, now 51, was a family man, and his wife, Maria, was an attorney, too. Amendola said Guttenberg often talked about one of his kids who suffers from Crohn’s disease, an incurable and often debilitating inflammation of the bowels.
“He understood the long caregiving I had given to a heart-transplant patient for 15 years,” Amendola said. “He would sympathize with me. He would tell me, ‘I am going to make this better for you.’ … He really made me feel like he loved me, like family. That he was watching over me.”
She gave Guttenberg $160,000 to invest. Guttenberg used it to buy stock in one company that he partially owned and another that was bankrupt. In other words, he bilked her.
Amendola was one of three people who complained about Guttenberg. He was disbarred in 2003 and sentenced to seven years in prison in April.
“I really have only myself to blame,” Guttenberg told Denver District Judge Robert McGahey at his sentencing. “I have no explanation for it. I was going through a terrible time of stress.”
His words put Amendola – no stranger to stress – beside herself.
“Everybody lives with stress,” she said. “You don’t go out and steal money just because you are having stress.”
She did not go to Guttenberg’s sentencing, or delight in hearing about it.
“I did not want to see him hauled off in handcuffs,” she said. “When I was told what they do to people in prison, I asked God for (Guttenberg’s) protection. …
“I know that he needs to be put away so that he does not harm any more people, but I just detest ugliness.”
Like most crime victims, Amendola runs through a range of emotions. “I really liked this guy,” she said. “My judgment call on this was so far off that it threw me into depression.”
She blames herself for being too trusting, which she says is a product of her upbringing as a devout Mormon.
Of course, even someone as sophisticated as Joe Coors Jr. can be taken. After Coors retired in 2000, he handed over millions to schemers. “I’d heard that,” Amendola said. “My husband knew him.” But this does not ease her pain.
Amendola got a consent judgment against Guttenberg, but he only paid her $10,000 and defaulted on the rest. At what was supposed to be a restitution hearing on June 16, Guttenberg’s attorney withdrew from the case. The move further delayed the issue of restitution.
Meanwhile, Guttenberg has been in divorce court with his wife. Dana Temple, Amendola’s attorney, tried to intervene in the divorce in an attempt to recover assets, but her motion was denied.
Prosecutor Joe Morales, who heads the Denver district attorney’s economic crime unit, isn’t sure whether Guttenberg has assets. Morales seeks a restitution order so that Guttenberg’s victims can lay claim to any money Guttenberg may see when he gets out of prison.
Amendola’s struggle continues.
“I’ve spent a lot of money on attorney’s fees chasing him,” she said. “Mr. Guttenberg stole my golden years from me.”
Al Lewis’ column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Friday. Respond to Al at denverpostbloghouse.com/lewis, 303-820-1967, or alewis@denverpost.com.
