A Fresno hairstylist has been sentenced to over 15 years in federal prison for defrauding a physician out of over $2.7 million.
Anthony Flores, 47, has also attempted to defraud the physician’s estate out of an additional $20 million.
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The big picture: Flores pleaded guilty last October to one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud, two counts of wire fraud, two counts of mail fraud, one count of conspiracy to engage in money laundering, two counts of money laundering and one count of engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from specified unlawful activity.
- His co-defendant and former girlfriend Anna Rene Moore, 40, also pleaded guilty last August to seven felonies in the case.
- Moore resided in Monterrey, Mexico, when she was arrested in January 2023 at a Houston airport.
- She pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud, two counts of mail fraud, one count of conspiracy to engage in money laundering, two counts of money laundering and one count of engaging in monetary transaction in property derived from specified unlawful activity.
Driving the news: According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Flores used false promises to befriend a physician and successful investor worth over $60 million June 2017.
- The physician suffered from a mental illness and had lost the ability to care for himself after multiple hospitalizations.
- Flores and Moore moved into the victim’s beachfront Malibu home, rent free, and slowly took control of his life by pretending to be his new best friends and caregivers shortly after meeting him.
- The victim suffered a severe mental breakdown and was arrested in September 2017. Flores fraudulently induced the physician to sign powers of attorney over, grinding him control over the victim’s finances.
- Flores never rescinded the powers of attorney after the physician was released from custody and opened bank accounts giving himself access to the victim’s wealth.
- Flores and Moore lived with the physician from September 2017 to May 2018 and diverted the physician’s funds to their own bank accounts, isolated the victim from his family and longtime friends and provided the victim with drugs, including cannabis and LSD.
- The physician died in May 2018 at the age of 57. Flores and Moore then withdrew large sums of money from his accounts and concealed information about the victim’s finances from his mother and sister. The mother and sister, who lived in Florida, filed a lawsuit, resulting in the fraud being uncovered.
- Flores and Moore attempted to launder the money through multiple different accounts during the lawsuit.
- The lawsuit was eventually settled, with Flores and Moore withdrawing their false creditor’s claims and agreeing to repay the victim’s estate $1 million, which they have not done.
What they’re saying: “This defendant heartlessly lined his own pockets while his victim mentally and physically declined, and ultimately died,” said United States Attorney Martin Estrada. “Financial fraudsters can prey on anyone, even the most financially successful among us. We hope that our efforts to convict and now sentence this defendant bring some solace to the victim’s family.”
- Krysti Hawkins, the Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office, added, “Mr. Flores and his co-defendant lived large on the victim’s massive wealth while they relentlessly robbed and exploited his vulnerabilities until he succumbed to an early death. The defendant deprived the victim’s family access to their loved one and then dragged them through years of litigation. This case is a reminder that grifters who prey on vulnerable and unsuspecting victims cannot be tolerated by society or the law.”
