Smith is scheduled to plead guilty Nov. 15 to one count of wire fraud and money laundering before U.S. District Judge Susan DeClercq, five months after being accused of stealing money over a 12-year period, a crime which financed a life of luxury and dizzying expenses.

The new date was set eight days after an undisclosed last-minute issue arose in federal court as Smith prepared to plead guilty to orchestrating what amounts to one of the largest frauds in Detroit history. The crimes could send the 52-year-old Novi resident to federal prison for 20 years or more.

The prolonged theft and elaborate cover-up described by prosecutors exposed lax oversight at a nonprofit overseen by powerful regional agents and funded by major Southeast Michigan philanthropies. The conservation organization, with $170 million in assets, has played a key role in Detroit since the city emerged from the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history a decade ago, helping to provide greater access to the international waterfront of the Detroit River and working on redevelopment of more than five miles stretching from the Ambassador Bridge almost to Belle Isle.