A Fresno hairstylist will spend nearly 16 years in prison for stealing millions of dollars from a mentally ill doctor and then attempting to defraud the man’s estate after his death.
Anthony David Flores, also known as Anton David, pleaded guilty last year to nine felony violations for his role in the scheme, including wire fraud, mail fraud, money laundering and conspiracy. His ex-girlfriend, Anna Rene Moore, 40, pleaded guilty to seven felony violations in the same case, according to Flores’ plea agreement.
Before handing down his sentence, U.S. District Judge Percy Anderson referenced Flores’ “cruel disregard of the victim’s suffering” and the lack of value that he placed on a human life.
“What this defendant did erodes core values that we as people have of empathy, compassion and kindness,” Anderson said. “This conduct was solely driven by greed.”
Anderson also ordered Flores to pay $1 million in restitution.
During sentencing, Flores’ family members packed the courtroom and watched as their loved one, who had a chain around his waist and his hands cuffed in front of him, read a letter to the court.
“I’m ashamed of myself,” Flores said, adding that he’d allowed “temptation and greed to get the best of me.”
He said that he and the victim, Mark Sawusch, were “like brothers.”
“Your brother? Your friend?” Anderson scoffed. “You knew it was wrong. You knew it was immoral.”
Flores and Moore met Sawusch, an ophthalmologist worth more than $60 million, at an ice cream parlor off Venice Beach in June 2017. Sawusch suffered from bipolar disorder and had lost the ability to care for himself after multiple hospitalizations, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California.
Within days of meeting Sawusch, federal prosecutors said, Flores and Moore moved into his beachfront Malibu home — where they lived rent free — and pretended to be his caregivers and new best friends. They lived with Sawusch from Sept. 2017 until his death in May 2018.
Flores admitted in the plea agreement that he persuaded Sawusch to grant him power of attorney during a mental breakdown so severe it ended in the doctor’s arrest in Sept. 2017. Flores told Sawusch on recorded jail calls that it would be a “very limited” power of attorney and only used to manage his affairs while he was in custody.
But the power of attorney was never revoked after Sawusch’s release from jail. Flores used it to open bank accounts in Sawusch’s name and gain access to his money, prosecutors said.
Days before Sawusch’s death, Flores and Moore gave him LSD, which sent Sawusch’s mental health into a tailspin, authorities said. While Sawusch was under the influence, Flores changed the two-factor authentication on Sawusch’s brokerage account to go to Flores’ phone, then initiated two $1-million wire transfers that ended up in his and Moore’s bank accounts.
Sawusch died alone in his home that Memorial Day weekend. The plea agreement revealed that, before his death, Flores and Moore had been surveilling Sawusch from a luxury hotel in Santa Monica via the security cameras in his house.
After his death, Flores and Moore continued to withdraw money from his accounts until Sawusch’s mother and sister sued them. The funds were frozen, but Flores and Moore attempted to salvage them through various money-laundering schemes.
In late 2018, Flores and Moore claimed Sawusch had promised them his house and one-third of his estate, but he was unable to change his will before his death. The ensuing resulted in the pair withdrawing their claims and agreeing to repay the estate $1 million, which has never been fulfilled, according to authorities.
Moore is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 28.
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