NEW YORK CITY — A Polk County, Florida, woman will spend four years in prison after pleading guilty to stealing $2.8 million from a Holocaust survivor she met on a dating website.
Peaches Stergo, 36, of Champions Gate, was described by U.S. District Judge Edgardo Ramos as “unspeakably cruel” and motivated by greed as he announced the sentence in Manhattan federal court.
Given a chance to speak, Stergo said: “I’m sorry.” She pleaded guilty in April to wire fraud, admitting that she drained the life savings of a man she met on a dating website seven years ago.
According to federal authorities, Stergo met the victim on a dating website several years ago. Around May 2017, she asked to borrow money from him to pay her lawyer, who she claimed was refusing to release money from an injury settlement.
After the victim gave her the money, authorities said that while Stergo claimed the settlement funds had been deposited into her bank account, bank records show she never received any money from an injury settlement.
Over the next four-and-a-half years, authorities said Stergo continued to lie and repeatedly asked the victim to 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.
Authorities said the victim wrote 62 checks totaling over $2.8 million that were deposited into Stergo’s bank accounts.
Authorities said Stergo also created a fake email account that appeared to belong to a TD Bank employee. She also created counterfeit letters from a TD Bank employee and fake invoices.
According to authorities, the victim was eventually forced to give up his apartment while Stergo “lived a life of luxury with the millions” he gave her. Authorities said she used the money to buy a home in a gated community, a condominium, a boat, and numerous cars. Authorities said she also took expensive trips and spent tens of thousands of dollars on expensive meals, jewelry, Rolex watches, and designer clothing.
She faces a $2.8 million restitution and forfeiture order as part of her sentence.
“Peaches Stergo callously defrauded an 87-year-old Holocaust survivor who was simply looking for companionship,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement. “But she did not get away with it. As today’s sentence demonstrates, perpetrators of romance scams will be held to account for their crimes.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
