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 felonies 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 felonies in the same case, according to Flores' plea agreement.
Before handing down his sentence, U.S. District Judge Percy Anderson referenced Flores' “callous disregard for the victim's suffering” and the lack of value he placed on a human life.
“What this defendant did erodes the fundamental values that we, as a people, have of empathy, compassion and kindness,” Anderson said. “This behavior was driven solely by greed. [Flores] “I got lost, so to speak, in the glitz and the glamour, the cars and the jewelry, living on the beach.”
Anderson also ordered Flores to pay $1 million in restitution.
During the sentencing, Flores' family members filled 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 am ashamed of myself,” Flores said, adding that he had allowed “temptation and greed to take over me.”
He said he and the victim, Mark Sawusch, were “like brothers” and that he loved him and would never forget him.
“His brother? Your friend?” Anderson scoffed. “What is so irritating and disturbing is that you knew exactly what you were doing. “You knew it was wrong, you knew it was immoral and you just didn’t care.”
As Flores prepared to leave the courtroom, he turned, smiled at his family and told them, “I love you.”
Flores' attorney, Ambrosio E. Rodríguez, requested a sentence of no more than 33 to 41 months, stating that his client took responsibility and pleaded guilty and has no criminal record.
“Obviously we accept the judge's sentence, but we are disappointed,” Rodriguez said after the sentencing. He described Flores' family, who declined to speak to reporters, as “devastated.”
In a statement provided to reporters, the Sawusch family said they were “finally finding some comfort in knowing that these ruthless criminals have pleaded guilty, confessed to their extensive web of deceptions and lies, and are facing the consequences.”
“There is nothing worse than those who prey on the most vulnerable,” the statement said.
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.
Beachfront homes on Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu.
(Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)
Within days of meeting Sawusch, federal prosecutors said, Flores and Moore moved into his beachfront home in Malibu, where they lived rent-free, and pretended to be his caretakers and new best friends. They lived with Sawusch from September 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 that it ended with the doctor's arrest in September 2017. Flores told Sawusch in recorded jail calls that It would be a “very limited” power of attorney and he only used to manage his affairs while in custody.
Anthony Flores, Anna Moore and Mark Sawusch in 2017.
(Federal Court Filing)
But the power was never revoked after Sawusch's release from prison. 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 caused Sawusch's mental health to plummet, authorities said. While Sawusch was under the influence, Flores changed the two-factor authentication on Sawusch's brokerage account 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 monitoring Sawusch from a luxury hotel in Santa Monica through security cameras in his home.
The Los Angeles County coroner determined it was an accidental death caused by ketamine and alcohol intoxication.
But a pathologist who performed an autopsy found that “therapeutic levels of ketamine” and a small amount of alcohol “did not contribute significantly to the immediate cause of death.” Sawusch died as a result of two heart conditions, the pathologist concluded: dilated cardiomyopathy and a congenitally narrowed coronary artery.
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 save them through various money laundering schemes.
In late 2018, Flores and Moore claimed that Sawusch had promised them his house and one-third of his estate, but was unable to change his will before his death. The resulting litigation over Sawusch's estate resulted in the couple dropping their claims and agreeing to reimburse the estate $1 million.
During the sentencing hearing, Anderson said the judgment has not yet been paid and some of the funds Flores embezzled are still missing.
Flores apologized to the Sawusch family for “using the legal system” against them.
Rodriguez, Flores' attorney, gestured to the more than a dozen family members and friends sitting in the courtroom.
“This is not a person who has created a life of crime,” Rodriguez said. “She has created friends and families who are here to support her.”
Assistant. U.S. Attorney Andrew M. Roach acknowledged that Flores had his family there and had his support, but noted that Sawusch “was really attacked because he didn't have that support.”
“That allowed [Flores] to take control and take control of your life,” Roach said.
Moore is scheduled to be sentenced on October 28.
