Date: June 17, 2024 Contact: newsroom@ci.irs.gov LOS ANGELES — A Fresno man was sentenced today to 188 months in federal prison for defrauding a vulnerable physician out of more than $2.7 million before his death and then attempting to defraud his estate out of an additional amount exceeding $20 million. Anthony David Flores, a.k.a. “Anton David,” was sentenced by United States District Judge Percy Anderson, who also ordered Flores to pay $1 million in restitution. “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.” “Mr. Flores’ exploitation of a mentally ill person to steal his wealth is despicable, and he will now reap the consequences of his actions,” said Special Agent in Charge Tyler Hatcher, IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS CI), Los Angeles Field Office. “Protecting vulnerable people from scammers will always be one of CI’s top priorities, and we will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to investigate these horrible crimes.” “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,” said Krysti Hawkins, the Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI's Los Angeles Field Office. “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.” Flores pleaded guilty in October 2023 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. Flores’ co-defendant and former girlfriend, Anna Rene Moore, who resided in Monterrey, Mexico at the time of her January 2023 arrest at a Houston airport, pleaded guilty in August 2023 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 monetary transaction in property derived from specified unlawful activity. Her sentencing hearing is scheduled for October 28. Flores and Moore have been in federal custody since January 2023. Beginning in June 2017, Flores used false promises and representations to befriend the victim — 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 after multiple hospitalizations. 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, after the victim suffered a severe mental breakdown resulting in his arrest and detention in a Los Angeles County jail, Flores fraudulently induced the victim to sign powers of attorney granting Flores control over the victim’s finances. Flores represented that 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, 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, 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. Ultimately, in May 2018, the victim died in his Malibu home at the age of 57 years old. Following the victim’s death, Flores and Moore moved back into the victim’s Malibu beachfront home and withdrew large sums of money from his accounts. They also concealed information about the victim’s finances from his mother and sister, both of whom resided in Florida. This prompted the victim’s family to file a lawsuit, which resulted in the fraud being uncovered. In the ensuing lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court, Flores and Moore violated multiple court orders ordering them to return 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. 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, which they have so far failed to do. The FBI and IRS CI investigated this matter. Assistant United States Attorney Andrew M. Roach of the Cyber and Intellectual Property Crimes Section is prosecuting this case. Assistant United States Attorney James E. Dochterman of the Asset Forfeiture and Recovery Section is handling asset forfeiture matters in this matter. CI is the criminal investigative arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money-laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a more than a 90 percent federal conviction rate. The agency has 20 field offices located across the U.S. and 12 attaché posts abroad.
