Monday Business Roundup
Will Brad Pitt Star in the Movie?
By Richard Martin, 10-01-07
Good news for the bank-robber groupies in the audience: you don’t have to content yourselves with a lachrymose Brad Pitt movie anymore, thanks to a former Denver resident turned Wyoming child-care entrepreneur and lone bandit.
Using modern tools of deception rather than a six-shooter and a mask, Anthony L. Ciocchetti spent the last year-and-a-half pilfering the vaults of several Gillette, Wyoming banks, according to a federal grand jury in Cheyenne. Ciocchetti, who moved from Denver to Gillette in January 2006 promoting a day-care center called the “Kiddy Country Club and Montessori School,” was charged last week with bank fraud, mail fraud and money laundering charges that could land him in jail for the next few decades.
Ciocchetti apparently had little trouble getting lenders to hand him money, the indictment alleges; his only mistake was the classic lazy bank robbers’ folly: robbing too many establishments in the same town. Authorities say he used phony documents including false tax returns to obtain loans and lines of credit for almost $700,000 from the Pinnacle Bank, First National Bank, the American National Bank of Gillette and Bank of the West. It took the combined efforts of the U.S. Secret Service, IRS’ Criminal Investigation Division, the Wyoming Secretary of State’s Securities Division and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service to run this modern-day Jesse James to ground.
Ciocchetti has pleaded not guilty and posted a $50,000 bond—unsecured.
In other business news:
-- As Congress readies the next Farm Bill, not only is the new economy of corn-based ethanol being scrutinized, but the growing organic farming business is attempting to flex new muscles in the form of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farms, in which local residents become “shareholders” and receive dividends, in the form of food bundles, throughout the harvest season. CSA pioneers hope that for the first time the new Farm Bill will include provisions supporting sustainable farming.
-- As home prices in Rocky Mtn. resort communities continue to soar, towns are seeking creative ways to provide affordable housing for non-plutocrats. In Carbondale, down-valley from Aspen, city trustees are beginning to work with the Roaring Fork School District to build affordable teacher housing, while in Telluride 24 locals have received funding this year from the First Time Homebuyers’ Assistance Fund, set up by the local realtors’ association.
-- While many baby boomers profess nostalgia for drive-in theaters like the ones they went to with their parents, the last drive-ins continue to disappear. The 36-year-old Cinderella Twin Drive-In, one of two remaining in the metro Denver area, met its fate last week as the Sheridan City Council approved a developer’s plan for an apartment complex on the site.
Like this story? Get more! Sign up for our free newsletters.
Like to receive our print magazine, The New West? Click here for free subscription information.
Comments
Be the first to comment on this article. Please complete the form below.