PITTSBURGH — The founder and former president of Equine Angels Rescue was indicted again last week on charges of interference with commerce by extortion, stemming from alleged affairs with two men.

Pamela A. Vivirito, 45, of Middlesex Township was indicted Sept. 22 by a federal grand jury for the second time this year.

A superseding indictment adds a second count of interference with commerce by extortion to the count that she was charged with, and arrested for, in March.

According to the indictment, Vivirito allegedly had a sexual affair with an individual, identified as “Person 2,” who was engaged in the manufacturing industry.

Their relationship allegedly began around December 2010 and continued through May 2012.

She is accused of obtaining Person 2's property through “wrongful use of threats to publicize and expose her sexual affair with Person 2,” according to the indictment.

These threats caused him to fear that he and his business would suffer economic harm if the affair was exposed, it said.

Her previous indictment also alleged an affair with a married man, identified as “Person 1,” from May 2012 through March 2015.

She is accused of making similar threats to Person 1 to obtain unspecified property. Person 1 feared that he and his wife's business would suffer economic harm if the information were to get out.

Vivirito had previously refuted the allegations saying “nothing like that took place.”

On Thursday she commented: “I realize that the justice system is, 'you are guilty until proven innocent' and my innocence will be proven.”

The FBI conducted the investigation and Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert S. Cessar is prosecuting the case, according to a news release from the FBI.

If she is convicted, the maximum total sentence is 40 years in prison, a fine of $500,000, or both.

She is to be in federal court Oct. 13 before Judge Robert Mitchell.

Vivirito and Equine Angels Rescue were involved in a legal battle in 2013 after the group seized several horses that they claimed to be abused or neglected and had the owners charged with animal cruelty.

A group of five horse owners responded by suing the rescue group and a state trooper for unlawfully taking the animals.

The suit was settled out of court in 2014 for $105,000 and Butler County District Attorney Richard Goldinger dropped the criminal charges against the horse owners.

The rescue group shut down in June 2014 and was later resurrected in December, operating out of Hidden Oaks Farms in West Deer Township, Allegheny County. Vivirito stepped down from her role as president in March.

Some of the volunteers from the rescue formed a new group called Flying Changes Equine Rescue to save the horses that were in Equine Angels Rescue's care, according to a post on the Hidden Oaks Facebook page.