Ex-Henderson woman gets 51 months in real estate fraud case
A former Henderson woman has been sentenced to 51 months in federal prison in a $1.5 million real estate scheme that used $232,000 of the ill-gotten gains to pay restitution in a state criminal theft case.
Mary Musso, 62, who now lives in New York, also was ordered earlier in the week to serve three years of supervised release after prison. She is to surrender to federal authorities on Sept. 4.
Musso pleaded guilty in February to one count of federal wire fraud stemming from the scheme, which authorities said occurred in August 2010. She also pleaded guilty to one count of making false claims to the IRS on her 2009 tax return.
The $232,000 was funneled through the client trust account of longtime attorney Mace Yampolsky, who defended Musso in a 2005 criminal case in Clark County District Court.
Yampolsky, who no longer represents Musso, was unaware of the scheme and was not accused of wrongdoing.
In August 2010, Musso fraudulently obtained $1,350,000 in loans using high-end condominiums owned by a Las Vegas business woman as collateral without her knowledge, according to federal prosecutors.
Musso fabricated emails and forged deeds of trust and promissory notes in the scam, prosecutors alleged.
She had a title company wire roughly $875,000 to Yampolsky’s trust account, then used $232,000 from the account to pay off the rest of $450,000 in restitution in the District Court criminal case, prosecutors alleged.
A county grand jury indicted Musso in January 2005 on felony charges of forging documents and stealing more than $700,000 from a local clinic. She ended up pleading guilty in that case, but did not serve any prison time.
Contact Jeff German at jgerman@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-8135. Find him on Twitter: @JGermanRJ
