Elizabeth Whitney, 58, a business associate of disbarred Denver lawyer Robert McAllister, has entered a guilty plea to one count of conspiracy.
The announcement was made by Barry Grissom, U.S. Attorney in Kansas, who is handling the cases of McAllister, a former federal prosecutor in Denver, and Whitney.
According to Grissom, Whitney conspired to interfering and obstructing government functions, as well as conspiring to commit interstate transportation of money obtained unlawfully, wire fraud and money laundering.
Grissom alleged last November that Whitney, as a business associate of McAllister in McCallister Properties LLC, assisted him in acquiring and flipping real estate and holding and transferring money as McAllister directed.
McAllister was indicted of multiple counts of wire fraud, interstate transportation of stolen money, and money laundering. He has entered a not guilty plea.
But tomorrow, McAllister is to appear for a “change of plea hearing” in U.S. District Court in Denver, said Jim Cross, spokesman for Grissom.
In her plea, Whitney admitted to conspiring with others to obtain wire transfers totaling more than $1 million in a scheme to obtain funds that were subject to a temporary restraining order entered by U.S. District Judge Stephen Limbaugh for the Eastern District of Missouri.
The funds were transferred by Whitney and another person to bank accounts in Colorado.
Federal prosecutors said that on Sept. 8, 2006, Whitney and another conspirator transferred $572,502 to a title company. The money was applied to a down payment on a home on Kelsie Court in Clark, Colo., according to prosecutors, which Whitney was purchasing from another conspirator as a straw buyer.
In an application for a loan to buy the property, Whitney falsely claimed her monthly income was more than $39,000, said prosecutors.
When McAllister was indicted last November, prosecutors alleged McAllister had represented Richard Neiswonger in a 1996 Federal Trade Commission action.
Later a judge ordered Neiswonger’s assets frozen.
The indictment alleged that shortly after the assets were frozen, McAllister and Neiswonger began to circumvent the restraining order by transferring money to McAllister from accounts over which Shannon Neiswonger had control for the purpose of concealing from the FTC and the court that the restraining order was being violated.
The indictment alleged that McAllister and Elizabeth Whitney entered a second conspiracy to embezzle more than $1 million that McAllister received from the Neiswongers and to conceal the theft.
Sentencing for Whitney is set for Sept. 14. She faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.
Howard Pankratz: 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com at twitter@HowardPankratz
