Woman steals $2.8M from Holocaust survivor and uses it for ‘life of luxury,’ feds say
.jpg "A woman stole a Holocaust survivor’s life savings, feds say.")
A woman lived a “life of luxury” in Florida by stealing the life savings of a man who survived the Holocaust, federal prosecutors said.
Peaches Stergo, 36, of Champions Gate, a community about 25 miles southwest of Orlando, conned the 87-year-old man into paying her over $2.8 million after meeting him on a dating site, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.
The man “looking for companionship” lost his apartment as a result while Stergo spent his money to buy a home in the resort-style, gated neighborhood of Champions Gate, a condo, a boat, cars including a Corvette, vacation stays at hotels including the Ritz-Carlton and more, prosecutors said.
Stergo pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud in connection with her “romance scam” on April 14, the attorney’s office announced in a news release.
“This conduct is sick — and sad,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement.
Stergo’s attorney Ann Fitz declined a request for comment from McClatchy News on April 17.
How the woman carried out the ‘romance scam’
Stergo met the man, who was living in Manhattan, New York, at the time, on an unspecified dating website roughly six or seven years ago, prosecutors said.
She introduced herself as “Alice” and asked him if she could borrow money beginning in 2017, according to an indictment.
Stergo lied and said she needed money because her lawyer wouldn’t give her what she was owed in a purported lawsuit settlement after she claimed to have been injured in a car accident, the indictment says.
As a result, the man gave her a check of $25,000, according to the indictment.
Stergo told him the settlement money was eventually deposited into her bank account — but bank records didn’t reflect this, prosecutors said.
She continued to lie to him for the next four and a half years, causing him to write her 62 checks in total, according to prosecutors.
Stergo told the man if he didn’t hand over money, her bank accounts would freeze and he’d never get his money back, officials said.
To support the scam, Stergo created a fake email address and wrote fake letters and invoices while posing as a TD Bank employee, according to prosecutors.
In October 2021, the man stopped sending Stergo money when his son told him that he was getting scammed, the indictment says.
The woman goes on a spending spree
With the man’s money, Stergo bought a four bedroom, 2,334-square-foot home along Trappers Trail Loop in Champions Gate, the indictment says.
The home is worth an estimated $455,800 on Zillow.
She also bought pricey meals; gold coins and bars; jewelry; Rolex watches; clothes from Tiffany, Ralph Lauren, Hermes, Louis Vuitton and Neiman Marcus; and designer purses, according to prosecutors.
Stergo has agreed to pay $2,830,775 in restitution, will forfeit that same amount and will forfeit “over 100 luxury items” she bought with the man’s money, prosecutors said.
She is facing up to 20 years in prison, according to the release.
Her sentencing hearing is scheduled for July 27, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors didn’t provide further details on the background of the man who survived the Holocaust, which was the genocide of 6 million European Jews carried out by Nazi Germany during World War II.
This story was originally published April 17, 2023 at 11:59 AM with the headline "Woman steals $2.8M from Holocaust survivor and uses it for ‘life of luxury,’ feds say."
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