Filed on the final day of March, Nancy Leprino’s lawsuit recommences a family feud that dates back a dozen years and reopens a window into the deeply private family company. Some of her claims were the focus of a 2022 trial at which a jury sided with her late uncle over her.

“That verdict has apparently emboldened (Leprino Foods and Nancy’s cousins) to push the minority shareholders out of the company,” she claims in her latest lawsuit. “They saw the decision as giving them carte blanche to bring their campaign of oppression to its conclusion.”

The Denver company, which rarely answers media requests, did not answer BusinessDen’s.

The Italian immigrant Mike Leprino Sr. began what would become Leprino Foods as a small grocery store at 1830 W. 38th Ave. in Sunnyside. After the store closed, his son James Leprino turned it into a cheese company and his other son, Mike, became a minority owner.

Capitalizing on America’s delivery pizza craze, Leprino Foods became the world’s largest manufacturer of mozzarella and today is the sole vendor of that cheese for Pizza Hut, Domino’s and Papa John’s. It was last valued in 2021 at $5 billion, or more than $5,000 per share.

Mike Leprino Jr. died in 2018 and James Leprino died last year, so the company passed down a generation to Mike’s three daughters (including Nancy) and James’ two daughters. Because James was the majority owner, his daughters, Terry Leprino and Gina Vecchiarelli, control it.

“Between May 2024 and the present, the majority shareholders bought out the other minority shareholders — Nancy’s sisters, Laurie and Mary — at predatory prices,” she alleges.

Dollar figures are redacted throughout Nancy Leprino’s lawsuit but she claims that Laurie’s 8.3% of the company and Mary’s 8.3% of the company should have been worth $400 million each, yet “the purchase price represented over a 75% discount,” suggesting they were bought out for about $100 million each in the spring and summer of 2024, according to Nancy.

“While this seems like a large amount of money,” her lawsuit acknowledges, “the fair value of shares representing over 8% ownership in a $5 billion company was far greater.

“Nancy has so far refused to accept a similar lowball offer from the company,” the suit says.

Instead, she has been trying to sell her shares to an unidentified third party “affiliated with a large private equity firm,” but her cousins have used a provision in the company’s founding documents to block the sale. Nancy Leprino’s lawsuit calls this sabotage. “The defendants’ message to Nancy is clear: sell to us at depressed prices or you will not sell at all.”

She is suing Leprino Foods, Terry Leprino, Gina Vecchiarelli, Gina’s husband, Dan Vecchiarelli, and their 26 trust funds for breach of fiduciary duty and illegal or oppressive conduct.

She wants Denver District Judge Ian Kellogg to force the defendants to either pay dividends — Leprino Foods has not done so in a decade — or buy her out at an undisclosed “fair price.” If it does neither, she wants a receiver appointed or the company dissolved.

Her lawyers in the new case are Jason Murray, Kenzo Kawanabe, Sean Grimsley and Noah Nix at Olson Grimsley Kawanabe Hinchcliff & Murray in Denver, who declined to comment.

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Leprino wasn’t one to work the social circuit, grant media interviews or even allow his photo to be taken. But he took the Leprino Foods Co., now known as Leprino, from a small local supplier of handmade cheeses to the world’s largest producer of mozzarella.

“Jim was known for his unwavering commitment to the people of Leprino, always ready to offer guidance, support and mentorship. He had a profound influence on countless lives — including his family, friends, customers, suppliers and the dairy industry,” his family, which declined an interview, said in a joint statement issued last week with the company.

Anybody who orders home-delivered pizza has likely tasted Leprino’s handiwork multiple times, especially the “stretch” in cheese he helped create. And for fitness fanatics who wouldn’t dare put a slice to their lips, the company is also a leading producer of whey protein, a liquid byproduct of making mozzarella that was considered a waste product until Jim tapped its value as a protein source for everything from infant formula to post-workout smoothies.

His father, Mike Leprino Sr., immigrated to the United States from Potenza, Italy, in 1914, and Jim was one of five children. After working various jobs, Mike Sr. fulfilled his retirement wish by starting a family grocery store in 1950. It was located along 38th Avenue and Shoshone Street in the heart of what was then Denver’s Little Italy.

Among the many goods offered up to the nearby paisani in the Sunnyside neighborhood were handmade ricotta and scamorza cheese.

Grocery store chains knocked many independent stores out of business, and Leprino & Sons was no exception. Jim, who worked at his father’s store in 1956 after graduating from high school, came up with the idea of supplying cheese to the fast-growing pizza business.

As the country’s love affair with pizza grew, Leprino Foods capitalized on it by supplying cheese to the companies that supplied the pizzas. But it wasn’t just a case of good timing. A test plant built next to the company headquarters on the original store site constantly reworked cheese formulas to meet the specific needs of specific customers, resulting in more than 50 patents.

Given that the cheese can represent about 40% of the cost of a pizza, the ability to produce it consistently in large quantities and at a lower cost helped pizza expand in popularity.

Pizza Hut, based in Wichita, Kan., was an early customer of the Leprino Cheese Manufacturing Co., the predecessor to Leprino Foods, which eventually became an exclusive supplier to Domino’s Pizza, a pioneer in the home pizza delivery market, in 1996. Most of the largest pizzamakers are customers, including Little Caesars and Papa John’s, as are manufacturers of items ranging from Hot Pockets to frozen dinners.

The company grew by producing cheese the way customers wanted, with zero public food recalls and at a price that beat the competition, cementing decades-long relationships. One of its biggest developments in the 1980s was a process that could convert fresh milk to pizza-ready cheese in four hours.

Forbes, in , called him the “Willy Wonka of cheese.” Business success resulted in financial success. Forbes ranked Leprino this year as the state’s sixth wealthiest resident with a $2.1 billion net worth. Despite having only a high school education, he was the , per Forbes.

In the days of rapid growth, Leprino had cards printed out for employees with four core values written on them, the same ones used by his father at the family grocery store —  quality, service, competitive price and ethics.

Leprino employs 5,500 people and supplies customers around the globe, and the state has benefited in numerous ways, including providing dairy farmers a ready market. The company built a plant in Fort Morgan in 1994 that employs 380 workers who convert 2.3 million pounds of milk a day into cheese and other dairy products.

“Occasionally, some of us are fortunate during our lives to meet individuals who will forever leave an invaluable legacy and footprint in the communities and lives they touch. Jim Leprino was one of those who, I feel, sparked positive momentum with development efforts for the (the city) when he chose to build his first Colorado cheese manufacturing plant in Fort Morgan more than 30 years ago,” said Sandy Schneider-Engle, an economic development specialist with the city in an email.

She added that several other companies followed Leprino, including the Dairy Farmers of America, creating an impact that “will continue to be felt in this Colorado community for many years.”

Leprino Foods went even bigger in 2011, converting a former sugar beet plant in Greeley to a production facility that employs 500 workers who convert 7 million pounds of milk a day into cheese.

But as fans of the television series “Succession” witnessed, tension and feuding can follow success at a family-run business. Jim tried twice, in 2008 and 2012, to buy out the quarter share controlled by his older brother Mike Jr. for $250 million. Both times, his offers were rejected as too low.

Mike Jr. was removed from the board and the company changed its corporate structure in a way that ended dividend payments. After he died, his interest went to his two daughters, Nancy and Mary, who sued the company and their uncle Jim in 2022, claiming a breach of fiduciary duty. The courts, in the original decision and on appeal, sided with Jim Leprino, arguing that despite his telling them the shares were worthless, they still held value and that his nieces hadn’t proven financial harm.

Leprino is survived by his wife Donna; his daughters Gina Vecchiarelli and Terry Leprino; his granddaughters Gianna Vecchiarelli and Francesca Lukas.

Jim Leprino and his family started the Leprino Foods Company Foundation in 2015 to support and advance the success of the communities where it operates. It has focused on fitness, education, nutrition and local needs.

The UCHealth Leprino Building in Aurora, which houses the Stroke and Brain Aneurysm Center, was built with family support, as was the Leprino Family Atrium at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science.

Jim Leprino was also a big supporter of Mt. Carmel Catholic Church, where a private memorial service will be held next week.

On Aug. 19, the Colorado Supreme Court announced it would not consider an appeal from one of the nieces, Nancy Leprino, bringing the headline-grabbing case to a quiet close. The state’s high court is the third legal panel to consider the matter and side with James Leprino.

“We are pleased with the decision of the Colorado Supreme Court, as well as the decisions of the jury and the prior courts,” said Michael Hofmann, a lawyer for the octogenarian.

Sean Connelly, an attorney for Nancy Leprino, declined to comment on the conclusion.

James Leprino’s father was an Italian immigrant who ran a small grocery store in Sunnyside until 1958, when large grocers put it out of business. James Leprino then turned Leprino Foods into a cheese company with an emphasis on pizza cheese. Leprino Foods now dominates the U.S. pizza cheese market and is the largest mozzarella producer in the world.

The company remains based in Sunnyside and family-owned. James Leprino and his children control 75 percent of Leprino Foods. The other 25 percent is owned by the three daughters of Mike Leprino, James’ brother who died in 2018.

In the years before his death, James Leprino feuded with his brother, who he believed had cheated him in business. So, James and his children removed Mike from the board of Leprino Foods and later limited his daughters’ roles with the company after Mike’s death.

The dispute came to a head when, in 2018, James Leprino told his nieces to tell the Internal Revenue Service that their stock in Leprino Foods was worth zero dollars. Because the stock can’t be traded and Leprino had decided to stop paying out dividends, the shares were worthless, he told his brother’s daughters, despite a valuation of $340 million.

Two of the three nieces, Nancy and Mary Leprino, sued their uncle and Leprino Foods in 2020, accusing them of rendering their shares worthless. They called for the company to be dissolved and asked jurors to award them at least $600 million during a 10-day trial.

“After your brother died, you told your nieces that their stock was worth zero. Isn’t that true, sir?” James Leprino was asked in a deposition video that was played at the trial.

“Yes,” the Leprino Foods CEO said.

Attorneys for James Leprino and Leprino Foods acknowledged that their client had called the shares worthless but argued they were not actually worthless. They noted that Mike Leprino and his daughters had received $135 million in dividend payments in 2017 and tens of millions of dollars each year between 2013 and 2016 — proof that their stock had value.

Jurors sided with James Leprino and Leprino Foods. When Nancy Leprino — but not her sister Mary — appealed their verdict to the Colorado Court of Appeals, it also ruled against her, finding that “no one — and certainly not the plaintiffs — actually believed the shares were worthless” and that James Leprino’s “declaration that the shares are worthless does not make them so.”

Nancy Leprino tried appealing that ruling to the Supreme Court, which declined to hear it.

The company, CEO James Leprino and two of Leprino’s daughters did not breach their fiduciary duty or wrongfully withhold information from two of Leprino’s nieces, the jury decided.

The jury of three men and three women deliberated for less than three hours Friday morning before reaching their verdict. They then notified Judge Stephanie Scoville’s clerk, who told the judge at 11:25 a.m. Scoville read the verdict aloud at 11:45 a.m.

“This verdict will be deeply felt by many. The parties have invested a lot in this case,” Scoville told the court before reading the verdict, warning them against breaking decorum.

James Leprino, an 84-year-old who has attended every day of the trial in a wheelchair, stood from his chair after the verdict was read and hugged supporters and his attorneys. Afterward, he stood again to take a photo with his family members and lawyers outside the courtroom.

Attorneys for Leprino Foods and James Leprino declined to comment on the verdict.

Mike Burg, an attorney for the nieces, Nancy and Mary Leprino, said his clients are “extremely disappointed in the verdict” and believe “the jury got it wrong.” Burg said they are considering appealing the verdict to a higher court.

“We believe the verdict sends the wrong message: that when you’re a billionaire, you can manipulate, breach your fiduciary duty, hire two of the largest law firms in the world” and win the case, Burg told reporters outside the courtroom.

The verdict follows a nine-day trial in which two of James Leprino’s nieces, Nancy and Mary Leprino, told jurors that they had been pushed out of the company following a dispute between their father, Mike Leprino, and their uncle in 2014.

James Leprino testified via deposition video Nov. 30. In the video, he acknowledged feuding with his brother and telling his nieces that their 17-percent stock in the multi-billion-dollar company is worth $0. He also admitted that he didn’t allow his nieces to loan the company money, an opportunity he granted to his own daughters and one that will earn them $165 million in interest over three decades.

The nieces argued that by rendering their stock worthless and prohibiting them from profiting from the loans, James Leprino and the company he controls cost them between $600-900 million. The company and its CEO argued that the stock is still highly valuable and the nieces are therefore owed nothing.

Leprino Foods, which grew out of a grocery store that James and Mike Leprino’s parents operated in Denver, is the largest maker of mozzarella in the world and provides cheese for the country’s largest pizza chains. Its headquarters at 1830 W. 38th Ave. in Sunnyside sits on the same corner as the former family store.

The defendants — Leprino Foods, James Leprino and his daughters — were represented by attorneys Michael Hofmann and Kaitlin DeWulf with the local office of Bryan Cave, along with Clifford Stricklin, Desi Hamilton and Jared Lax with the Denver office of King & Spalding.

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For three hours, clips from a video deposition of the 84-year-old billionaire were played before eight jurors on a large flat-screen television in the courtroom.

In the clips, Leprino said that in 2014 he came to believe his older brother, Mike Leprino, had cheated him in business, though he didn’t say why he believed that. James Leprino and his daughters, who together own 75 percent of the private company, then removed Mike Leprino from the board of Leprino Foods. He testified that he didn’t warn his brother before the vote.

“I was making room for more productive board members,” Leprino said. “He spent a lot of his time on his own ranch and olive oil business and very little time in his office in Denver.”

Leprino and his daughters then changed the bylaws of Leprino Foods’ board to ensure that shareholders would not receive dividends from the company, beyond a one-time payout.

In place of dividends, Leprino and his daughters loaned their $400 million from the one-time payout back to Leprino Foods in the form of 20- and 30-year loans, which will generate $165 million in interest for Leprino, his children and his grandchildren, Leprino testified in the video.

When asked if his nieces — Mike Leprino’s three daughters — were allowed to loan their $90 million in payouts back to the company, Leprino said, “No, I never made that offer.”

Because they cannot generate cash flow from Leprino Foods through dividends or loan interest, his nieces’ 25 percent of shares are now worthless, James Leprino testified. But in his hands, the stock would be very valuable, according to Leprino.

“After your brother died (in 2018), you told your nieces that their stock was worth zero. Isn’t that true, sir?” Mike Burg, an attorney for the nieces, asked at the deposition.

“Yes,” James Leprino said.

Burg later asked, “The actual value of the stock owned by your nieces is zero, correct?”

“Correct,” Leprino said.

Leprino also acknowledged telling his nieces to leave Leprino Foods’ headquarters in north Denver and barring them from returning, but said it was a short-lived ban.

“It lasted maybe a couple weeks or a week even,” he said during the deposition, which was recorded over two days in January, according to timestamps on the video.

“You didn’t want to tear your family apart?” Leprino was asked by Burg.

“Absolutely not,” he said forcefully.

Leprino also attended the trial in person Wednesday, as he has since it began Monday. He sat in a wheelchair wearing a black suit with a gray tie. He listened to much of his own testimony through a court-provided listening device but closed his eyes and rested at times.

The video deposition took up most of Wednesday, the third day of a 10-day trial. Nancy and Mary Leprino, two of Mike Leprino’s three daughters, are suing Leprino Foods, James Leprino and the two daughters of James Leprino. They allege the defendants rendered their stock worthless and prohibited them from making the loans, costing them $600 to $900 million.

Leprino Foods, which grew out of a grocery store that James and Mike Leprino’s parents operated in Denver, became the largest maker of mozzarella in the world and provides cheese for the country’s largest pizza chains.

The trial’s afternoon session began with talk of a juror’s expletive.

After a lunch break and before jurors returned to the courtroom, attorneys for both sides debated whether defense attorney Michael Hofmann crossed a line by asking Nancy Leprino, a witness who testified Tuesday and early Wednesday, why she wanted to dissolve Leprino Foods.

Nancy and Mary Leprino’s initial lawsuit called for the company to be dissolved as a result of their uncle’s actions. However, Judge Stephanie Scoville ruled before the trial that it does not have to dissolve. As a result, it is not a matter for jurors to decide in the trial.

Nancy Leprino responded to the question by saying that she didn’t want to dissolve the company, but thought it was required by law in cases like this.

Burg, an attorney for the nieces, told Scoville that jurors had been tainted by Hofmann’s question. He said several observers in the courtroom saw a female juror roll her eyes and mouth the words, “What the [expletive]?”

“This was not a mistake. This was intentional by them,” Burg said, pointing at the defense table.

After taking 15 minutes to consider whether the defense’s questions and the juror’s reaction warranted a mistrial, Scoville returned to the courtroom and ruled they did not. She said the defense’s line of questioning was fair. After the jury returned, Scoville reminded them to keep an open mind and to not express their preference for one side or the other.

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“The door is shut to you and your sisters doing anything in this building,” James Leprino, the CEO of Leprino Foods, told his niece Nancy Leprino in 2014, she testified.

Nancy Leprino’s voice shook as she read aloud from a letter she wrote to her uncle after that remark, asking that he reconcile with his brother, Nancy’s father Mike Leprino.

“I know grandpa and grandma are looking down from heaven and praying that you and dad work out your differences. You are brothers,” the letter said. “What you have created (at Leprino Foods) is breathtaking and truly inspiring, something my father always acknowledges.”

Nancy Leprino’s remarks dominated the first full day of testimony in a 10-day trial, which promises to unveil Leprino family drama as well as details about the inner workings of Leprino Foods, a private company. It is the largest maker of mozzarella in the world and provides cheese for the country’s largest pizza chains.

A jury of five women and three men chosen Monday must determine whether James Leprino and his daughters wrongfully pushed the late Mike Leprino and his daughters out of Leprino Foods and rendered their company stock worthless, costing them as much as $900 million.

James Leprino, a deeply private man, attended the trial Tuesday in a black suit and blue-gray tie. The 84-year-old businessman used an assistive listening device provided by the court and sat in a wheelchair near the courtroom entrance.

Nancy Leprino and her sister Mary sued Leprino Foods, James Leprino and two of his daughters in 2020. The plaintiffs own 17 percent of Leprino Foods and the defendants own 75 percent. Nancy’s sister Laura owns the remainder but is not a party in the case.

Nancy Leprino spent six hours on the witness stand explaining how the board of Leprino Foods, largely controlled by her uncle and two cousins, voted to kick her father off the board in late 2014 and then shut him and his daughters out of company decision-making entirely.

“Your dad cheated me,” James Leprino told her at one point, she testified. Nancy Leprino said she didn’t know what her uncle was referring to. “I was shocked.”

Mike Leprino transferred his 25-percent share of the company to his daughters before he died in 2018. James Leprino later told his nieces that the stock is worthless, Nancy Leprino testified.

“I knew something was really wrong then. It frightened me,” she said.

“Why did it frighten you?” her attorney, David TeSelle, asked.

“Because I was worried it was true,” she said.

James Leprino allowed himself and his daughters to loan their dividends from Leprino Foods back to the company, earning them hundreds of millions of dollars in interest, but didn’t allow his nieces to make those same loans, Nancy Leprino testified.

“It wasn’t fair,” she told jurors.

Attorneys for James Leprino have said the loans carried a small interest rate and Nancy Leprino made more money by investing her dividends elsewhere. They’ve also questioned Nancy and Mary Leprino’s claims that their shares in Leprino Foods are somehow worthless.

The company was worth nearly $4 billion in 2012, according to exhibits shown at the trial Tuesday, and Mike Leprino’s share was worth $634 million then. The company’s confidential balance sheets were also displayed on screens several times Tuesday.

Nancy Leprino’s grandfather immigrated from Italy to North Denver as a teenager in the 1910s and later opened a grocery store specializing in Italian ingredients. When large grocers forced it out of business in the 1950s, James Leprino turned it into a cheese company.

The headquarters of Leprino Foods at 1830 W. 38th Ave. in Sunnyside sits on the same corner as the former family store.

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Once there, their attorneys will debate whether two heiresses are owed as much as $900 million.

Twenty-eight months ago, two of James Leprino’s nieces sued the company, their reclusive uncle and his daughters. The nieces alleged they and their late father — James’ brother Mike — were shut out of the privately owned family company to their financial detriment.

Leprino Foods, James Leprino and his daughters deny there was any financial harm. A jury chosen Monday will decide over the next two weeks which side is right.

“It is a very sad situation. It should have never gotten to this,” said Mike Burg, an attorney for the nieces and head of the Englewood-based firm Burg Simpson Eldredge Hersh Jardine.

“A bunch of rich people fighting over money always is kind of ugly,” he added.

Since Nancy and Mary Leprino, the nieces, first sued in July 2020, judges have pared back the litigation. The case was first heard by Denver District Court Judge Michael Vallejos before his retirement earlier this year. It is now being heard by Judge Stephanie Scoville.

On Nov. 9, Scoville rejected an argument by Nancy and Mary Leprino that Leprino Foods must be dissolved because the actions of James Leprino and his daughters were so egregious. Scoville found no reason to resort to “the extreme remedy of judicial dissolution.”

So, jurors will only be left to decide whether the nieces are, as they claim, owed between $600 million and $900 million or, as the defendants claim, owed nothing. To do so, they will need to unravel Leprino Foods’ ownership structure.

Ownership of Leprino Foods is divided between 650,000 shares of stock, all held by members of the Leprino family. The nieces own 17 percent. The defendants — James Leprino and his daughters Terry Leprino and Gina Vecchiarelli — collectively own 75 percent. A third niece, Laura Leprino, owns the remaining stake and is not a party in the litigation.

Mike Leprino was involuntarily removed from the company’s board in 2014. His daughters and their 17 percent of the company haven’t had a say in Leprino Foods’ affairs since.

In 2017, Leprino Foods changed its corporate structure and all shareholders, including the nieces, received a one-time payout from the company. The majority shareholders — James Leprino and his daughters — loaned their payout back to Leprino Foods, generating millions of dollars in interest. But Mike Leprino and his daughters weren’t offered that opportunity, according to court records.

After Mike Leprino died in 2018, Nancy and Mary Leprino say James Leprino told them that their 17 percent of stock is worthless due to the way he restructured Leprino Foods.

“He is the one who has said it is worth zero and said that he has this scheme that has made it worth zero, so they (the nieces) are not going to get any benefit out of the stock,” Burg said of James Leprino. “So, we take him at his word that it����ap worth zero.”

Attorneys for James Leprino, meanwhile, say the only benefit that the minority shareholders were denied — the opportunity to loan their combined $90 million payout back to the company at a modest 2.7 percent interest rate — wasn’t really a benefit at all, since the nieces instead invested that money in something that resulted in a higher return than 2.7 percent.

“Plaintiffs did not suffer any financial losses,” the attorneys wrote in a brief Nov. 16.

James and Mike Leprino’s father immigrated from southern Italy to North Denver as a teenager in the 1910s and later opened a grocery store specializing in Italian ingredients. When large grocers forced it out of business in the 1950s, James turned it into a cheese company.

By the 1960s, Leprino Foods was selling its cheese to Pizza Hut and then to Domino’s, Papa John’s and Little Caesars. Its headquarters at 1830 W. 38th Ave. in Sunnyside sits on the same corner as the former Leprino family grocery store that started it all.

James Leprino, 84, is now worth $2 billion, according to Forbes. He hasn’t been photographed in public since 1978 and gives very few interviews. When Forbes spoke to him in 2017, he told a reporter, “It����ap hard for me to believe I agreed to this. I really like to keep my privacy.”

Requests for comment from attorneys representing James Leprino and his daughters were not answered. They are Clifford Stricklin, Desi Hamilton and Jared Lax with the Denver office of King & Spalding, plus Kaitlin DeWulf and Michael Hofman with the local office of Bryan Cave.

“Jim Leprino has a lot to say about the fact that he doesn’t have to follow the rules, he doesn’t like to pay any taxes, and that he can do whatever he wants,” Burg alleged of the Leprino Foods CEO. “We have those clips and those clips will be played throughout this trial.”

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Gina Vecchiarelli, whose billionaire father is chairman of Leprino Foods, and her husband Daniel, vice chairman of Leprino, purchased an 8,465-square-foot home in the 4600 block of Franklin St. through a trust on Aug. 5, according to property records.

The six-bedroom, 11-bathroom home sits on a nearly 1-acre lot and is arranged in a U-shape around a courtyard. Outdoor amenities include a salt-water pool, hot tub, a pool house that could double as a guest home and a six-car garage.

Sellers Chris and Rebecca Morley purchased the home for $4.2 million in 2015, according to property records. Chris is the CEO of Lightpath, a fiber-based bandwidth technology company in New York, according to his LinkedIn.

Vecchiarelli, her sister Terry Leprino and her father James Leprino collectively own 75 percent of Leprino Foods, the world’s top producer of mozzarella cheese, selling , with $3.5 billion in revenue, according to Forbes.

James is estimated by Forbes to be worth $2.7 billion. , the magazine dubbed him the “Willy Wonka of cheese.”

The family is in the midst of an extended legal feud over the ownership of Leprino Foods. Leprino’s nieces, in August 2020. The lawsuit remains unresolved.

Nancy sold her last year, and Mary sold for $3.1 million in 2021, plus in June this year for $5.6 million, according to property records.

Here are the next four priciest local home sales from August, according to MLS:

5 bed, 6 bath mansion on Spring Valley Road, Boulder: $5.4 million

This custom home, sitting on half an acre, was built in 2007 and designed by Boulder architect Lesley DeFrees. With 6,263 square feet, the home features five bedrooms, six bathrooms, a chef’s kitchen with high-end appliances, and a walkout lower level that opens to a covered patio.

• Listing agent: Tim Goodacre with Milehimodern
• Buyer’s agent: John Hoeffler with WK Real Estate

4 bed, 6 bath house on Cedar Avenue, Denver: $5.1 million

This 7,252-square-foot home in Belcaro has four bedrooms and six bathrooms. It also comes with custom-made furniture, a chef’s kitchen, a poker room, a sauna, a covered patio with a fireplace and a four-car garage with a dog wash station and heated driveway.

• Listing agent: Josh O’Connell with Compass – Denver and Bryon Horvath with Wild & Mild Homes
• Buyer’s agent: Amy Kissinger with Compass – Denver

3 bed, 4 bath home on Indian Peaks Trail, Boulder: $4.9 million

Sitting on 1.2 acres, this 6,923-square-foot home backs the first fairway of the Boulder Country Club with its own path from the golf garage to the ninth hole. It includes three bedrooms, four bathrooms, a top deck with golf course and mountain views, a gym, a large sunroom that opens up to an outdoor kitchen with a pizza oven and bar, an elevator for all levels, and a game room with a golf simulator downstairs.

• Listing agent: Gwenivere Snyder with Christie’s International Real Estate Colorado
• Buyer’s agent: Lorrie Trussell with RE/MAX Alliance-Boulder

6 bed, 8 bath mansion on Columbine Street, Denver: $4.7 million

This newly finished property was built by MJS Properties and is reminiscent of coastal New England architecture. The six-bedroom, eight-bathroom home features 7,957 square feet with soaring ceilings, two main floor offices and an attached four-car garage with lift options. The 2,274-square-foot finished basement includes a family room, gaming area, gym, wet bar and wine cellar.

• Listing agent: Shannon Roberts with Sublime Real Estate & Development
• Buyer’s agent: Wilson Leonard with RealGroup

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The magazine released the 2021 version of its Forbes 400 list earlier this month. The top spot went to Jeff Bezos, with an estimated $201 billion net worth. The No. 400 slot went to Arkansas investment banker Warren Stephens, worth $2.9 billion.

Here are the seven Coloradans who made the list:

Charles Ergen (No. 56, $13 billion): The 68-year-old Ergen, of Denver, is the cofounder of satellite TV provider Dish Network and satellite communications firm EchoStar. His net worth increased from $9.3 billion on the 2020 list.

Philip Anschutz (No. 66, $10.6 billion): The 81-year-old Anschutz, of Denver, has holdings in oil, real estate and media, including the Denver Gazette and Washington Examiner. The 2020 list put his wealth at $10.1 billion.

John Malone (No. 98, $8.4 billion): Malone, 80, was the CEO of TCI, which was acquired by AT&T in the late 1990s. He is now chairman of Liberty Media, whose holdings include the Atlanta Braves. He was worth $6.5 billion in 2020.

Mark Stevens (No. 224, $4.8 billion): Stevens, 61 and of Steamboat Springs, was a partner at Silicon Valley venture capital firm Sequoia Capital. He was worth $3.1 billion in 2020.

Kenneth Tuchman (No. 310, $3.7 billion): Tuchman, of Denver, is the founder and CEO of TTEC, which operates call centers. The 61-year-old hadn’t been included among the Forbes 400 since the late 2000s.

Pat Stryker (No. 340, $3.4 billion): The 65-year-old Stryker, of Fort Collins, is the granddaughter of the founder of medical equipment manufacturer Stryker Corp. The 2020 list put her wealth at $2.5 billion.

James Leprino (No. 358, $3.3 billion): Leprino, of Indian Hills, is the CEO of Leprino Foods, which produces cheese for pizza chains like Pizza Hut and is based in the Highland neighborhood. The 83-year-old’s wealth increased 10 percent from the 2020 list.

While the above are the only individuals on the list that Forbes said reside in Colorado, others are connected to the state.

Nuggets and Avalanche owner Stan Kroenke, for example, is No. 70 on the list at $10.7 billion, but his residence is listed as Electra, Texas. And Denver native Robert F. Smith makes the list with $6.7 billion, but he is also listed as living in Texas.

There are 660 more billionaires than last year, and the world’s most prosperous class of people combined to gain over $5 trillion in worth in just a year. In Colorado, billionaires became nearly $10 billion richer since March 2020.

Colorado’s richest person is businessman Philip Anschutz, according to Forbes’ list. The investor has a net worth of $10.1 billion which is nearly the same as the GFP for The Bahamas, according to the International Monetary Fund.

Anschutz, 81, didn’t follow the trend. He lost about $1 billion in the past year, dropping on the billionaires’ list from the 118th to the 224th richest person in the world.

Eight other Coloradans made the list:

• Charles Ergen, co-founder and chairman of Dish Network and EchoStar, $9.6 billion
• John Malone, former CEO of Tele-Communications, $7.8 billion
• Mark Stevens, Silicon Valley venture capitalist, net worth: $3.7 billion
• Pat Stryker, Stryker Corp. and founder of the Bohemian Foundation, $3 billion
• James Leprino, Leprino Foods chairman, $3 billion
• Kenneth Tuchman, TTEC, $2.8 billion
• Gary Magness, cable television and movie production investments, $1.6 billion
• Thomas Bailey, formerly of Janus, net worth: $1.2 billion.

Although, as of April 8, Ergen’s net worth was $10.7 billion compared to Anschutz’s $10.1 billion, Anschutz ranked higher on the list.

While not a Coloradan, Stan Kronke has deep Colorado ties. The 73-year-old owns the Denver Nuggets, Colorado Avalanche, Colorado Rapids, and a lot of real estate in Denver. His net worth dipped to $8.2 billion on this year’s list, likely due to his many investments in sports franchises, also owning the Los Angeles Rams and Arsenal.

Jeff Bezos remains the wealthiest person in the world, with a net worth of $191.4 billion. The Amazon magnate has gained over $3 billion in the last 24 hours.