A Florida woman has been charged with stealing $2.8 million from a Holocaust survivor in a romantic scam.

NEW YORK. A 36-year-old Florida woman is charged with a multi-year scheme that resulted in the theft of an 87-year-old Holocaust survivor’s savings, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.

Peaches Stergo of Champions Gate, Florida is charged with one count of wire fraud, with a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

Investigators said that Stergo deceived the elderly man into spending his savings so she could become a millionaire through fraud.

The scheme involved forging Stergo documents and impersonating a bank clerk in exchange for travel, Rolex watches and luxury goods, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Southern New York said.

“Today we allege that the defendant heartlessly preyed on a senior citizen just looking for companionship, depriving him of his savings,” FBI Assistant Director Michael J. Driscoll said in a statement. “The FBI is committed to achieving justice for the victims of fraud and ensuring that fraudsters are brought to justice for their actions.”

According to the indictment, from around May 2017 until at least October 2021, Stergo was involved in a scheme to scam more than $2.8 million from a Holocaust survivor.

Officials said Stergo met the victim on a dating site about six or seven years ago.

Sometime in early 2017, investigators said that Stergo asked the victim to borrow money to pay her lawyer, who she said was refusing to release funds from injury compensation.

After the victim gave her the money, she said the settlement funds were transferred to her TD Bank account. However, prosecutors said bank records showed that Stergo never received any money from injury compensation.

Officials said that over the next four and a half years, Stergo continued to lie to the victim, repeatedly demanding that he deposit money into her bank accounts. The indictment stated that she claimed that if he did not do so, her accounts would be frozen and he would never get his money back.

In total, according to prosecutors, the victim wrote 62 checks totaling more than $2.8 million, which were transferred to one of Stergo’s two bank accounts.

Stergo is also accused of creating a fake email account to make it look like it belongs to a TD Bank employee. Officials claim she also created fake letters from a TD Bank employee and fake accounts.

Federal investigators said the victim lost her savings and was forced to give up her apartment while Stergo lived in luxury on the millions she received from the scam. They said she bought a house in the gated community, a condominium, a boat and a variety of cars, including a Corvette and a Suburban.

Officials said Stergo also made expensive trips, stopping at places like the Ritz Carlton and spending many tens of thousands of dollars on expensive food, gold coins and bars, jewelry, Rolex watches and designer clothes from stores like Tiffany. Ralph Lauren, Neiman Marcus. , Louis Vuitton and Hermes.