PITTSBURGH — A Butler County woman who runs a horse rescue group was involved in a scheme to extort property from a businessman by threatening to tell his wife about their sexual affair, according to federal prosecutors.

But the defendant, 44-year-old Pamela A. Vivirito of Middlesex Township, denies the allegations disclosed in an indictment that a federal grand jury handed down last week.

“It’s very untrue,” Vivirito told the Butler Eagle. “Nothing like that took place.”

The FBI arrested her Friday morning at the Target store parking lot on Route 8 in Richland Township, Allegheny County. Later that day, she made her initial appearance before Federal Magistrate Judge Cynthia Eddy in Pittsburgh.

Vivirito, head of Equine Angels Rescue, is to be arraigned Friday on a single count of interference with commerce by extortion.

According to the indictment, which was unsealed Friday, Vivirito from May 2012 to this month used her sexual relationship with the married businessman to extort unspecified property from him.

The indictment did not identify the man, referring to him instead as “Person 1” whose business interests include “the rental of commercial property and in the construction industry.”

Vivirito “did obtain and attempt to obtain the property of Person 1 with his consent having been induced by (her) wrongful use of threats to publicize and expose her sexual affair with (him),” prosecutors allege in the indictment.

Those threats, the indictment said, “caused Person 1 to fear that he, his business and his wife’s business would suffer economic harm if such information were to be publicized or exposed.”

Vivirito refuted the charges and insisted there was “absolutely no affair” and “no relationship” with the married man. But, she claimed, “he wanted one.”

Asked what she believed his motive was in making the allegations against her, Vivirito said, “He’s out to save himself.”

In 2013, Vivirito and Equine Angels Rescue found themselves embroiled in controversy after they seized a number of horses that they claimed were abused or neglected.

Vivirito and a state trooper also filed criminal charges of animal cruelty against some of the same horse owners.

A group of five Butler County horse owners sued Vivirito and her group, as well as the trooper and a veterinarian, for unlawfully taking their animal.

The lawsuit, filed by five horse owners, was settled out of court last year for $105,000. Along with the monetary judgment, the owners got their horses back.

Meanwhile, Butler County District Attorney Richard Goldinger in 2014 dropped the cases against all those owners who were criminally charged.

In the wake of the legal setbacks and negative publicity, Vivirito last summer shut down her horse rescue operation in Butler County. But several months later, the group, under Vivirito’s leadership, started up again at Hidden Oaks Farms in West Deer Township, Allegheny County.

Vivirito said she has hired a Pittsburgh attorney, who she did not identify, to represent her in the federal case against her. She said she planned to meet with him today to discuss the indictment.

The law provides for a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000. Under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, the actual sentence imposed would be based upon the seriousness of the offense and the prior criminal history, if any, of the defendant

While dismissing the charges as baseless, Vivirito admitted she worries about how the accusations would affect her reputation.

“Anybody would be concerned. But it is what it is,” she said. “The No. 1 thing is, the truth will come out. I’ve persevered before, and I will again.

“God doesn’t give you something you can’t handle. There’s a reason for this.”