Though vocally skeptical of the allegations, a Denver judge has agreed to allow an aunt of former Granby Ranch ski area CEO Melissa Cipriani to investigate whether she used the ski area to fraudulently transfer money and evade the aunt’s $19 million court judgment.
“I’m frustrated with this case,” Judge David Goldberg said at a Dec. 17 hearing, “and I do agree that it is in large part, at least from my perspective, overblown and will result in significant cost and expense that may not, or should not, be necessary under the circumstances.”
Cipriani’s lawyer has complained that the allegations against her “read like a spy novel full of international intrigue,” including illegal extraction and smuggling of uncut gems.
Cipriani, 44, is the daughter of Marise Cipriani, an heir to Brazilian airline and meatpacking fortunes who bought the Silver Creek ski area in Grand County for $12 million in 1995 and turned it into the Granby Ranch subdivision. That ski-and-golf resort amassed tens of millions of dollars in debt before being sold to an out-of-state developer in 2021. Melissa Cipriani was CEO of Granby Ranch Amenities, which operated the ski and golf areas there.
Among those owed money from the Ciprianis is Valeria Fontana, Marise Cipriani’s sister and Melissa Cipriani’s aunt. In 2013, Fontana agreed to post the collateral for a $19.3 million bank loan to her sister. When Cipriani didn’t repay, the bank took the collateral and Fontana has been seeking repayment since. She won a $19.3 million court judgment in 2021.
Then, last year, Fontana sued her sister and niece, along with nearly 30 other people and companies, accusing them of moving money around in a conspiracy to keep it away from Fontana, including assets that Melissa Cipriani controlled at Granby Ranch. The Ciprianis have repeatedly denied doing that and have asked that the case be dismissed.
“They should show some proof upon which they base the allegations in their complaint,” Melissa Cipriani’s lawyer, Darrell Daley, said of Fontana’s lawyers at the Dec. 17 hearing. “It’s somewhat akin to a probable cause hearing in a criminal case: You have to show something before you can proceed with the case. They need to show something before they should be allowed to proceed with discovery. They need to show that they have some evidence.”
Fontana’s lawsuit against the web of people and companies she accuses of defrauding her has moved at a snail’s pace through Denver District Court. Fontana’s lawyers say they are having a hard time tracking down the defendants, many of whom are in Brazil, and obtaining bank records and other financial information that will reveal the alleged fraudulent transfers.
“If we were required to have all the information to rebut a defendant’s claims prior to filing a case, no discovery would be necessary in litigation. That’s not how the system works,” Fontana attorney Klaudia Beutler said at the mid-December hearing. “We should be afforded the opportunity to fully investigate the veracity of Ms. Cipriani’s assertions.”
Among the details that Beutler and her client expect to investigate is the provenance of some of Cipriani’s jewelry, “given her family’s history with uncut gems,” in Beutler’s words. In August 2023, her brother Guilherme Cipriani pleaded guilty to smuggling 67 loose diamonds from Brazil to Miami, where he was arrested at the airport. He was sentenced to probation.
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As partial repayment, the Ciprianis have offered Fontana millions of dollars in uncut gems, which she has refused to accept out of concern they were stolen or smuggled.
Meanwhile, Goldberg has tentatively sided with Fontana, declining to dismiss the case against Melissa Cipriani, even as he again complained about the case’s slow progression.
“This proceeding,” the judge wrote on Dec. 18, “has a long and tortured past.”