Sentence due for hairdresser who defrauded Malibu ophthalmologist

Lina Portman3 weeks ago

0 3 minutes read

A hairstylist faces sentencing Monday in downtown Los Angeles for defrauding a Malibu eye doctor of more than $2.7 million before the doctor's death, then attempting to siphon off an additional amount exceeding $20 million of the inheritance.

Anthony David Flores, 47, who goes by Anton David, pleaded guilty last year to nine federal charges, including conspiracy to commit mail fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. money, according to the US Department of Justice.

The combined convictions carry a possible sentence of decades in federal prison, the DOJ said.

Flores' co-defendant and then-romantic partner, Anna Rene Moore, 40, had previously pleaded guilty to seven of the 12 counts in the indictment. The yoga instructor and actress, who last lived in Monterrey, Mexico, is scheduled to be sentenced on June 24.

The couple was living in Fresno, where they operated a window cleaning business and yoga studio when they first met Dr. Mark Sawusch by chance at a Los Angeles-area ice cream parlor in June 2017.

Sawusch was a successful doctor and investor who was worth more than $60 million, but who suffered from mental illness and had lost the ability to care for himself. He had recently left the hospital after several involuntary psychiatric stays, according to Flores' plea agreement.

Days after meeting Sawusch, Flores and Moore moved into his beachfront Malibu home — rent-free — and slowly took control of his life by posing as his new best friends and caregivers, the DOJ said .

In September 2017, after Sawusch suffered a severe mental breakdown that resulted in his arrest and detention in Los Angeles County Jail, Flores fraudulently induced him to sign powers of attorney granting him control of his finances.

From September 2017 to May 2018, Flores and Moore diverted the victim's funds to their own bank accounts, isolated Sawusch from his family and longtime friends, and supplied him with drugs, including marijuana and LSD, according to court documents.

In the final days of the doctor's life, Flores and Moore administered LSD to him, which seriously deteriorated his mental state, federal prosecutors said.

While Sawusch was under the influence of LSD, Flores changed the two-step authentication feature on the doctor's $60 million online brokerage account after previously changing the phone number listed on the account, switching from Sawusch's phone number to his own, according to the indictment in the case. .

Four days before Sawusch's death and while still under the influence of LSD, Flores made two transfers of $1 million from the doctor's brokerage account to accounts that Flores controlled, including the bank account Flores staff, according to the DOJ.

Flores and Moore then left the victim, who was then in mental distress, and kicked them out of his home, prosecutors said. From a luxury hotel paid for with stolen funds, Flores and Moore watched the eye doctor's deteriorating mental state on video cameras installed throughout the Malibu beach house, according to federal prosecutors.

In May 2018, Sawusch died in his Malibu home at the age of 57. After his death, Flores and Moore returned to the Malibu home and withdrew large sums of money from the deceased's accounts. They also hid information about the victim's finances from her mother and sister, who both lived in Florida. This prompted the victim's family to file a lawsuit, which exposed the fraud.

In the ensuing trial in Los Angeles Superior Court, Flores and Moore violated multiple court orders directing them to return the stolen funds to the victim. They attempted to launder the fraudulent proceeds by funneling the money through multiple accounts to prevent Sawusch's estate and the court-appointed receiver from recovering the money.

Lina Portman

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