They met on a relationship app. He used to be an eightysomething Holocaust survivor from Fresh York Metropolis shopping for romance. She used to be a extra special youthful Florida lady who prosecutors assert used to be shopping for a uncomplicated mark.

Per a federal indictment, Peaches “Alice” Stergo found one. Over the direction of 4 years, she allegedly convinced the sufferer to hand over his life savings: $2.8 million.

He used to be left so broke he had to go his condominium. In the period in-between, the indictment alleges, Stergo vulnerable his money to stay excessive on the hog.

“She has lived a lifetime of luxurious with the hundreds and hundreds she received from the fraud: she equipped a home in a gated neighborhood, a condominium, a boat, and a huge preference of vehicles, including a Corvette and a Suburban,” the indictment charges.

“All the design during the direction of the fraud, Stergo furthermore took pricey journeys, staying at locations be pleased the Ritz Carlton, and spent many tens of hundreds of greenbacks on pricey meals, gold cash and bars, jewelry, Rolex watches, and designer clothing from shops be pleased Tiffany, Ralph Lauren, Neiman Marcus, Louis Vuitton, and Hermes.”

Stergo, 36, convinced the aged man that she used to be due a titanic settlement from a automobile accident nonetheless that her lawyer used to be refusing to commence the funds, prosecutors acknowledged. She appropriate wished a mortgage—$25,000 to commence—to pay the lawyer.

After that first evaluate, nonetheless, requests for extra money followed, alongside with the warning that the sufferer had to pony up extra if he ever wished to recoup what he had already given her, the feds acknowledged.

When he purchased suspicious, she allegedly falsified documents and emails from a financial institution to persuade him she used to be telling the truth.

The rip-off came to gentle when the person, who’s now 87, confided in his son that all his money used to be long past.

“This day we express the defendant callously preyed on a senior citizen merely looking for companionship, defrauding him of his life savings,” FBI Assistant Director Michael J. Driscoll acknowledged in a press commence as the wire-fraud indictment in opposition to Stergo used to be announced.

Stergo, who lives in Champions Gate, Florida, used to be arrested in her home train and will be transferred to Fresh York to face the charges. Court filings did no longer record a lawyer for Stergo.