A Florida woman has been arrested after she reportedly scammed a Holocaust survivor out of millions of dollars.
Peaches Stergo, 36, is facing up to 20 years in prison in connection with the years-long crime, which she committed against an 87-year-old Holocaust survivor she met on a dating site in 2017, according to FBI Assistant Director Michael J. Driscoll.
"The defendant callously preyed on a senior citizen simply seeking companionship, defrauding him of his life savings," Driscoll said in a statement.
According to the indictment, Stergo first scammed the man out of $25,000 in May 2017 when she told him she'd received a settlement in a car accident, but couldn't get the money until she paid her lawyers.
Over the next four years, Stergo came up with several new stories and repeatedly demanded that the victim deposit money into her bank accounts. She claimed that if he did not, her accounts would be frozen and he would never be paid back, according to the indictment.
Stergo further convinced the victim to send money by allegedly creating a fake email account, intended to appear as if it belonged to a TD Bank employee, along with fake letters from a TD Bank employee and fake invoices.
"The victim wrote almost monthly checks to Stergo, often in increments of $50,000," the indictment says. "The victim continued to write checks because he was afraid he would never see his money again."
In total, the victim wrote 62 checks — totaling over $2.8 million, authorities said.
Stergo used the money to buy a new house, a condo, several vehicles, a boat, Rolex watches and more, the FBI reports.
"While the victim lost his life savings and was forced to give up his apartment, Stergo lived a life of luxury with the millions she received from the fraud: she bought a home in a gated community, a condominium, a boat, and numerous cars, including a Corvette and a Suburban," the US Attorney's Office of the Southern District of New York said in a statement. "Stergo also took expensive trips, staying at places like the Ritz Carlton, and spent many tens of thousands of dollars on expensive meals, gold coins and bars, jewelry, Rolex watches, and designer clothing from stores like Tiffany, Ralph Lauren, Neiman Marcus, Louis Vuitton, and Hermes."
The victim stopped writing checks to Stergo in October 2021 after he confided in his son and realized he had been scammed, according to the indictment.
Stergo, of Champions Gate, Florida, is charged with one count of wire fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
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