HARRISBURG -- A woman who admitted stealing thousands of dollars from Gov. Tom Ridge's re-election campaign funds nearly a decade ago pleaded guilty Wednesday to stealing about $1.1 million from the Harrisburg real estate and investment company that later hired her.

Lauretta S. "Laurie" Simmons, 44, spent the money on real estate in the Caribbean island of Aruba, vintage automobiles, bicycles worth $6,000 apiece and a $41,000 wine collection, she said in court records.

Simmons also said she bought designer furniture, a Cartier watch and a Vespa scooter — and stocked her modest home in Lemoyne with hundreds of gold and silver coins.

Simmons has agreed to relinquish all of those goods and more as part of a plea deal that is likely to result in a federal prison sentence of about four years, Assistant U.S. Attorney Bruce Brandler said during a 20-minute hearing during which she pleaded guilty to wire fraud.

Simmons went to work in 1999 as an administrative assistant to Joseph Sweeney, head of the firm that bears his name, after the Ridge campaign fired her. In the earlier case, she pleaded guilty to mail fraud and was ordered to pay $94,000 in restitution.

She also was sentenced to a year and a day in prison but was released after spending a short time in a Harrisburg halfway house, Brandler said.

Her embezzlement from Joseph V. Sweeney and Associates — which does business as Public Affairs Consultants — and a related company, Arcus Properties, occurred over a three-year period that began in January 2006. She handled bank business, including writing checks and making deposits.

"She was virtually unsupervised in this activity during the years she handled these responsibilities," Brandler told U.S. District Judge William Caldwell.

Brandler said her plea deal depended on her cooperating in a criminal investigation not related to the theft from the business. He declined to elaborate.