Florida Woman Arrested After Scamming Holocaust Survivor Out of $2.8M
Peaches Stergo was charged with one count of wire fraud for “maliciously draining” the bank account of an 87-year-old man between 2017 and 2021.
A Florida woman was arrested for allegedly committing a “years-long scheme” to defraud a Holocaust survivor out of nearly $2.8M, according to a statement released by the DOJ on January 25.
Peaches Stergo was charged with one count of wire fraud for “maliciously draining” the bank account of an 87-year-old man between 2017 and 2021. Stergo spent the money on luxury goods, such as expensive trips, Rolex watches, a Corvette, a condominium, and designer clothing, while the man lost his apartment and life savings.
The two individuals reportedly met each other through a dating website 6 or 7 years ago, but Stergo used the name Alice. She eventually asked the man to borrow money to pay her lawyer, “who she claimed was refusing to release funds from an injury settlement.”
“She repeatedly demanded that the Victim deposit money into her bank accounts,” the DOJ statement reads. “She claimed that if he did not, her accounts would be frozen, and he would never be paid back. In total, the Victim wrote 62 checks — totaling over $2.8 million — that were deposited into one of two of Stergo’s bank accounts.”
According to CNN, the man stopped writing checks to Stergo in 2021, after his son learned of his father’s activity and informed him that he was being scammed. If convicted, Stergo faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.