ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) — The U.S. Attorney's Office has announced that Katherine Mott-Formicola — the owner of The Wintergarden, Monroe's, The Crescent Beach, and more — has pleaded guilty to financial institution fraud and money laundering. USAO says these charges come with a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison and a fine of $1 million. A March lawsuit filed by Five Star Bank alleged that Mott began “kiting” checks using multiple accounts at First Star Bank and others to artificially inflate those bank accounts' balances. The assistant attorney of the case said in a release that Mott-Formicola used ten business accounts at Five Star Bank and seven accounts at Kinecta Federal Credit Union to run a check-kiting scheme. The attorney said that between November 2022 and March 2024, Mott-Formicola would write checks between the accounts to artificially inflate their value. Prosecutors alleged that Mott-Formicola did this with over 500 checks to inflate her accounts. In March of this year, investigators said that Kinecta did not honor Mott-Formicola's checks to Five Star. After the checks were not honored, Mott-Formicola's scheme would lead to Five Star Bank losing nearly $19 million. In May, an updated civil suit from Five Star alleged four more people participated in this scheme: Kristina Bourne, Robert Harris, Timothy Larocca and Taylor Pagano. The announcement of Mott-Formicola's guilty plea does not include any of these names. Mott-Formicola is scheduled to be sentenced on May 1, 2025. According to a November 26 filing from the court-appointed receiver — a CPA tasked with managing Mott-Formicola's finances, recovering the money, and paying back the bank — said that he believes sale of her assets would be the only way to make payments. Receiver appointed in suit against Rochester restauranteur Katherine Mott Full conclusion from the filing: "I continue to receive full cooperation from management of the Defendant Entitiesand from Five Star Bank, in its capacity as banking institution for the Defendant Entities, for which I am appreciative. This said, I believe it is critical for the Court and all Parties to understand my strong belief that, while continued sale of business and non-business assets will allow me to continue discharging my obligation to make payments and disbursements, in the ordinary course of business, as may be needed and proper for the continued operation of the Defendant Entities' businesses," because of the Companies' structural deficiencies, these measures will not succeed in "righting the ship," but rather will only temporarily forestall the inevitable depletion of Entity Defendant assets. Should the Court have any questions or concerns in response to this report, I am happy to offer a supplement or to appear before the Court." News 8 also reached out to Mott-Formicola and her spokesperson for comment and have yet to hear back. Meanwhile, her businesses wrote in an official statement saying operations are running normally stating, "All venues operated by Monroe's, including Monroe's Restaurant, Rare 3001, Wintergarden by Monroe's and Divinity Estate & Chapel, remain open and are doing business as usual. We look forward to serving the public with exceptional quality and service they have come to expect from us." Stay with News 8 on this developing story.