Woman scams 2.8 million from Holocaust survivor

Peaches Stergo, 36, allegedly scammed a Holocaust survivor out of his life savings. (The U.S. Attorney’s Office)

Peaches Stergo led an 87-year-old Holocaust survivor to believe that there was something romantic in the cards. She ran a romance scam against him from 2017 to 2021 after meeting him on a dating app. She created a phony email account as well as phony documents to assist her with fooling the survivor that these transactions supported her claims. While the Holocaust survivor had to give up his apartment, Stergo lived a life of luxury from the money she was scamming from him.

From the Department of Justice (U.S. Attorney’s Office):

From at least in or about May 2017, up to and including at least October 2021, STERGO engaged in a scheme to defraud an 87-year-old Holocaust survivor (the “Victim”) of over $2.8 million, which was his life savings.

STERGO met the Victim on a dating website approximately six or seven years ago. In or about early 2017, STERGO asked the Victim to borrow money to pay her lawyer, who she claimed was refusing to release funds from an injury settlement. After the Victim gave her the money, STERGO said the settlement funds had been deposited into her TD Bank account. In reality, bank records show STERGO never received any money from an injury settlement.

Over the next four and a half years, STERGO continued her lies. She repeatedly demanded that the Victim deposit money into her bank accounts. 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.

In furtherance of the fraud, STERGO created a fake email account, intended to appear as if it belonged to a TD Bank employee. She also created fake letters from a TD Bank employee and fake invoices.

While the Victim lost his life savings and was forced to give up his apartment, STERGO lived a life of luxury with the millions she received from the fraud: she bought a home in a gated community, a condominium, a boat, and numerous cars, including a Corvette and a Suburban. During the course of the fraud, STERGO also took expensive trips, staying at places like the Ritz Carlton, and spent many tens of thousands of dollars on expensive meals, gold coins and bars, jewelry, Rolex watches, and designer clothing from stores like Tiffany, Ralph Lauren, Neiman Marcus, Louis Vuitton, and Hermes.

The Department of Justice, and Fox News, provide details on the story.

Category: "Teh Stoopid", Crime, Society