A Florida woman who deceived an 87-year-old Holocaust survivor of $2.8 million in a romance scam pleaded guilty on Friday.
The US Attorney for the Southern District of New York announced that Peaches Stergo, 36, faces up to 20 years in prison when she is sentenced on July 27 for one count of wire fraud.
Stergo’s Actions Disgust Florida Attorney
Florida Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement, “This behavior is reprehensible and tragic.” Stergo lived a lavish lifestyle, purchasing a home in a gated community and a Corvette, taking vacations at hotels such as the Ritz-Carlton, and purchasing tens of thousands of dollars worth of designer clothing, while her elderly victim lost his apartment.
She allegedly met the victim on a dating website several years ago, and starting in early 2017, she allegedly started looking for loans to pay a lawyer so that he would release money from a fictitious injury settlement.
No settlement funds were ever deposited into her account, but over the course of four and a half years, she repeatedly demanded more money from the victim, who wrote 62 checks totaling more than $2.8 million.
In order to defraud the elderly victim, Stergo allegedly also pretended to be a TD Bank employee and created fictitious bank invoices.
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Victim’s Devastating Losses
During the course of the fraud, Stergo purchased designer clothing from stores such as Louis Vuitton and Hermès, as well as a boat, multiple cars, including a Corvette and a Suburban, and luxurious vacations at the Ritz-Carlton.
The victim lost his life savings and his apartment as a result of the fraud.
A federal public defender listed in court documents as her attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Sunday. Additionally, Stergo agreed to pay $2,830,780 in restitution and forfeit the various luxury items she purchased.
As an increasing number of Americans have turned to online dating to find love, romance scams have increased.
According to the consumer group Comparitech, an estimated 73,000 Americans lost a record $1 billion to fraud in 2022.
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