LOS ANGELES — Two folks have been charged with stealing almost $3 million from a rich ailing investor, transferring into his Malibu seashore home, claiming to befriend him and giving him medicine, earlier than trying to steal one other $20 million after his dying, federal prosecutors mentioned Wednesday.
Anthony Flores, 46, of Fresno, was arrested final week and pleaded not responsible to felony fees, whereas Anna Moore, 39, who lives in Monterrey, Mexico, was arrested Tuesday in Houston after a airplane flight, based on a press release from the U.S. lawyer’s workplace for the Central District of California. She appeared in a Texas courtroom however didn’t enter a plea.
Each might be extradited to California.
They have been indicted by a grand jury on Dec. 15. It wasn’t instantly clear whether or not they had attorneys to talk for them.
Starting in 2017, Flores, a hairstylist who owned a window cleansing enterprise in Fresno, and Moore, a former yoga studio proprietor, met an ophthalmologist who was a profitable investor however suffered from a psychological sickness that had progressively left him unable to look after himself, based on prosecutors.
“Inside days of assembly the sufferer, Flores and Moore moved into the sufferer’s beachfront Malibu dwelling – lease free – and slowly took management of his life by pretending to be his new ‘finest pals’ and caregivers,” the assertion mentioned.
Flores instructed the sufferer’s aged mom, who lived in Florida, that they have been caring for him and “had the sufferer’s finest pursuits in thoughts,” based on the indictment, which didn’t determine the sufferer by title.
Flores later bought the sufferer to signal over energy of lawyer and opened financial institution accounts within the sufferer’s title, based on prosecutors.
For months, Flores and Moore diverted the sufferer’s cash into their very own financial institution accounts, “remoted the sufferer from his household and longtime pals and offered the sufferer with medicine, together with marijuana and LSD,” the U.S. lawyer’s workplace assertion mentioned.
Within the remaining days of his life, the 2 allegedly gave the doctor LSD that triggered his psychological situation to deteriorate, prosecutors mentioned.
Flores additionally allegedly modified the telephone quantity and safety settings on the doctor’s $60-million on-line brokerage account to entry it and wired $2 million to his personal checking account.
By this time, the sufferer had evicted the pair from his dwelling, however that they had put in cameras within the seashore home and watched his deteriorating situation from a luxurious resort, prosecutors mentioned.
After the sufferer died in Might 2018 at age 57, Flores and Moore moved again into his dwelling and started taking out massive quantities of cash from his account, prosecutors mentioned.
The indictment didn’t point out how he died.
Flores and Moore are every charged with felonies, together with conspiracy, identification theft, mail fraud and cash laundering.
They may face a long time in jail if convicted on all counts.