DOJ: Fresno hairstylist, actress plead guilty in Malibu caregiver fraud

FRESNO, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) – A Fresno hairstylist pleaded guilty on Thursday to nine felonies charges for defrauding a physician out of more than $2.7 million before his death – and attempting to defraud his estate out of over $20 million, the United States Department of Justice announced.

According to the DOJ, 47-year-old Anthony David Flores, a.k.a. “Anton David”, pleaded guilty 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.

DOJ: Fresno hairstylist, actress charged in caregiver fraud

The DOJ says his co-defendant and former girlfriend, 40-year-old Anna Rene Moore, an actress and former yoga studio owner who lived in Monterrey, Mexico, at the time of her arrest, pleaded guilty on August 28 to seven felonies in this case: 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 a monetary transaction in property derived from specified unlawful activity.

According to Flores’ plea agreement, beginning in June 2017, Flores used false promises and representation to befriend the victim, who was a physician and successful investor worth more than $60 million, but who suffered from a mental illness and lost the ability to care for himself.

The DOJ says within days of meeting the victim, 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.

In September 2017, federal prosecutors say the victim suffered a severe mental breakdown resulting in his arrest and detention in Los Angeles County jail, Flores fraudulently induced the victim to sign powers of attorney granting Flores control over the victim’s finances.

The DOJ says he says he would only use these powers to access the victim’s finances to post bail for release, and that the victim could immediately rescind them once the victim was free from jail. But after the victim was released from custody, the powers of attorney were never rescinded. Within days, prosecutors say Flores used these powers to open bank accounts in the victim’s name with Flores listed as the power of attorney, giving himself and Moore access to the victim’s wealth.

From September 2017 to May 2018, the DOJ says Flores and Moore lived with the victim, diverted the victim’s funds to their own bank accounts, isolated the victim from his family and longtime friends, and provided the victim with drugs, including marijuana and LSD.

In the final days of the victim’s life in May 2018, the DOJ says Flores and Moore gave the victim LSD, causing his mental state to severely deteriorate. While under the influence, Flores caused the two-step authentication feature on the victim’s 60-million online brokerage account to be changed after previously having changed the phone number listed on the account.

According to the DOJ, Flores initiated two $1 million wires from the victim’s brokerage account without his knowledge or consent to Flore’s personal account, and then the couple left the victim, who was in mental distress by this time. They remotely watched the victim’s deteriorating mental condition on the video cameras installed throughout the Malibu house from a luxury hotel paid with the victim’s funds. The victim died in May 2018 in his Malibu home at 57 years old.

After his death, the DOJ says they moved back into the victim’s Malibu home and withdrew large sums of money from his accounts, as well as concealed information about the victim’s finances from their family in Florida, which prompted them to initiate the lawsuit.

In the ensuing lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court, the DOJ says Flores and Moore violated multiple court orders ordering them to result in the funds stolen from the victim. They attempted to launder the fraudulent proceeds by funneling the money through multiple different accounts to thwart the victim’s estate and court-appointed receiver from recouping the money.

Six months after the victim’s death, the DOJ says Flores and Moore falsely claimed that the victim had “promised’ them one-third of his estate and his Malibu beach house and that the victim was on the verge of changing his will to name both Flores and Moore before his death.

The DOJ says after extensive litigation with the victim’s estate, the lawsuit was settled with Flores and Moore withdrawing their false creditor’s claims and agreeing to repay the victim’s estate $1 million, but they have failed to do so.

United States District Judge Percy Anderson scheduled a Feb. 26, 2024 sentencing hearing, at which time the DOJ says Flores will face a statute maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison for each fraud count, up to 20 years on the conspiracy to commit money laundering and laundering of monetary instruments counts, and up to 10 years on transactional money laundering count.

According to federal officials, Moore’s sentencing hearing is scheduled for Jan. 22, 2024.

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