A GOLD-digger has pleaded guilty to conning a Holocaust survivor out of more than $2.8million in life savings and his apartment in a dating scheme.
The shameless Florida scammer, Peaches Stergo, 36, met the 87-year-old survivor, who was not named, on a dating website about six or seven years ago.
Stergo used the money she conned out of the victim to fund her life of luxury, which included Ritz Carlton vacations, a home in a gated community, and a condo.
The United States Attorney's Office called it a "sick and sad" scheme, saying that the victim "was just looking for companionship."
Stergo asked the survivor to borrow money in early 2017 and said it would be used to pay her lawyer, who she claimed was refusing to release funds from an injury settlement.
The victim agreed to give Stergo the money, but court docs say there was no settlement and that she made fake documents including letters and invoices, as well as a phony email address all linked to a made-up TD bank employee to carry out the scheme.
“Stergo created fake letters from a TD Bank employee, which falsely claimed her account had a hold which would only be lifted if many tens of thousands of dollars were deposited into her account,” according to court docs.
The court docs said: “Stergo also created fake invoices for the victim to provide to his bank after the bank began questioning the large and repeated transfers of money to Stergo.”
Stergo kept demanding money over the next four and a half years.
She would tell the victim that her accounts would be frozen and he would never be paid back if he did not put more money into her accounts.
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The victim wrote checks about once per month, which would usually be in increments of $50,000, the court docs say.
A total of 62 checks written by the victim added up to more than $2.8million, which were deposited into one of two accounts that Stergo controlled.
Stergo spent tens of thousands of dollars on expensive meals, gold, jewelry, and designer clothing from luxury brands like Tiffany, Ralph Lauren, Neiman Marcus, Louis Vuitton, and Hermes.
In October 2021, the scam unfolded when the victim told his son that “over time, he had given his life savings” to Stergo, court docs say.
“The victim’s son told his father that he had been scammed,” according to the court docs. “After that, the victim stopped writing checks to Stergo.”
The US Attorney's Office announced on Friday that Stergo pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud.
She has to pay over $2.83million in restitution and forfeit the same amount, along with over 100 luxury items she bought from the scam including Rolex watches, designer purses and clothing, and large amounts of gold and jewelry.
Her sentencing is scheduled for July 27, 2023, when she could receive up to 20 years in prison.
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