Yogis who stole millions from ailing Malibu doctor expose the perils caregivers can pose to the vulnerable

By Lukas I. Alpert

Anthony David Flores, who took advantage of a brilliant, but unstable doctor was sentenced to nearly 16 years in prison. Prosecutors say he and his then-girlfriend tried to lay claim to a third of the doctor's fortune after he died

Dr. Mark Sawusch was a man who needed help.

A brilliant California ophthalmologist, Sawusch's struggles with bipolar disorder had ended his career, landed him in jail and isolated him from his family.

Then he had a chance meeting with a pair of yoga gurus at a vegan ice cream parlor in Venice Beach in the summer of 2017. Their spiritual vibe cast a spell on him, prosecutors say, and the gurus - Anthony David Flores and his then-girlfriend, actress Anna Rene Moore - quickly became Sawusch's constant companions.

They moved into his multi-million dollar, beachfront home in Malibu, and quickly took control of his life. Before long, they had established a grip on his $60 million fortune and increasingly isolated him from friends and family, federal prosecutors in Los Angeles say.

Under Flores' and Moore's watch, Sawusch received massage therapy for up to six hours a day. They also helped administer doses of LSD, marijuana and ketamine, an animal tranquilizer and party drug Sawusch had been prescribed to use to treat severe depression, prosecutors said.

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In less than a year, Sawusch would be dead at the age of 57 following a manic episode in which he ingested a toxic mix of ketamine and alcohol. The death was deemed accidental, but prosecutors allege that the "multiple reckless risks" Flores and Moore had taken had contributed to his death.

While they watched over him, prosecutors said Flores and Moore funneled millions of dollars of his money into their own pockets, and then tried to lay claim to a third of his fortune and his house after he died.

On Monday, a Los Angeles federal court judge threw the book at the 47-year-old Flores - who pleaded guilty to wire fraud and other charges last year - to 15 years and eight months in prison, a term higher than what prosecutors had even asked. Moore, 40, who also pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with authorities, is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 28.

"You chose greed above all else and took advantage of someone who was weak," U.S. District Court Judge Percy Anderson said at the hearing downtown Los Angeles. "If you take advantage of the most vulnerable people in our society, there is a steep price to pay."

In a statement, Sawusch's family said they found "some comfort in knowing these relentless criminals have plead guilty, confessed to their widespread web of deceit and lies, and are facing the consequences."

"It is so hard to believe that over six years ago we began this tremendously long and unfathomable battle seeking justice and what we thought at the time would help other victims," the statement said.

Following the judge's ruling, Flores smiled and bowed to the many friends and relatives who joined him in court. His family declined to comment following the hearing.

Flores' attorney, Ambrosio Rodriguez, said he and his client were disappointed in the outcome, because while Flores admitted taking advantage of the situation, he argued he had been driven by a genuine desire to help someone he saw as a friend.

"The friendship developed spontaneously and without ulterior motives," Rodriguez had written in court papers. [Flores] was dealing with an eccentric multi-millionaire doctor who had severed family ties and possibly driven away friends with his behavior, relying on Mr. Flores and Ms. Moore to experience new things. In this context, the defendants and the victim formed a symbiotic, mutually beneficial relationship."

Telltale signs of fraud

Prosecutors say what Flores and Moore did was caregiver fraud. While Sawusch's case was extreme, Flores' and Moore's actions echoed those seen in thousands of similar frauds every year.

Last year, a study commissioned by AARP found that $20 billion was stolen annually from elderly people or others needing care, by family members or people charged with helping them. On average, around $58,000 is taken in such situations, AARP found.

"This scheme is all too common with today's aging population. Sadly, the government has received numerous reports of similar frauds involving similarly vulnerable victims since this case went public," prosecutors wrote in their sentencing request for Flores. "There are other victims out there and other fraudsters doing similar schemes. A message must be sent to society. Potential abusers must know that they will get caught and punished."

Experts say there are telltale signs that someone is abusing a position of trust involving a vulnerable person. Those include efforts to isolate the victim from family and friends. Things like saying all communication must go through the caregiver is cause for alarm.

Changes in behavior, spending and activities - like taking sudden trips when they had seldom traveled previously - are also things to watch out for, experts say. Unusual financial transactions involving abnormally large sums of money are also potential signs of abuse, as is the sudden appearance of new credit cards or loans.

These signals aren't always easy to spot, however, if the person has become isolated or hasn't previously allowed some visibility into their finances.

Once the fraud begins, it can sometimes take lawyers and forensic financial experts to determine what has happened and where the money has gone.

Read: 'Could a nefarious caregiver steal her money?' My mom, 91, has a $5 million portfolio, but leaves her passwords lying around the house.

Downward spiral

Sawusch's turbulent life reached a crossroads in the months before he met Flores and Moore.

In 2015, he divorced after only a year of marriage, records show. Not long after, his father passed away. Then in 2016, he suffered a serious accident that left his hands badly burned and made it impossible for him to continue practicing medicine.

While he had built a successful medical practice in Pacific Palisades, Sawusch had amassed a fortune worth $80 million at its peak through a series of well-timed investments, court records showed.

But he soon began to lose control, struggling with mental health issues that landed him in psychiatric facilities at least eight times between 2016 and 2017, as well as several run-ins with the law for petty crimes, court papers revealed.

That's when Sawusch first encountered Flores and Moore. The pair, who lived in Fresno, where they ran a yoga studio and a window-cleaning business, were frequently in Los Angeles where Moore was pursuing an acting career and Flores worked as a hairdresser on film shoots.

Within a day of meeting, Sawusch had invited them to live in his Malibu beach home and gifted them his Tesla (TSLA).

Flores' lawyer and Moore's family have said that the couple initially were drawn to the doctor because they saw he needed help. Rodriguez further argued in court papers that Sawusch saw in the gurus a lifestyle that he wanted to live, and that bringing them into his home served a "mutual benefit."

"Witnesses to this friendship have reported that Dr. Sawusch invited them to live with him because he desired social acceptance and wanted to experience new activities that he had been unable to pursue due to his introverted nature," Rodriguez wrote in court papers. "It was from this desire that Dr. Sawusch, voluntarily and without being deceived or coerced by Mr. Flores or Ms. Moore, engaged in a friendship with them."

Sawusch's family and prosecutors have strenuously disputed this version of events, saying that Flores and Moore were really grifters who had identified a vulnerable mark and that they only had eyes on the doctor's money.

Within months, Sawusch began to have his doubts, suspecting the pair were con artists, and, during a manic episode, throwing them out of his house. The pair wouldn't be gone for long.

Sawusch then fell into a disturbing spiral, during which he was arrested several times over the course of a few weeks in the summer of 2017, for throwing rocks and construction cones at passing cars on the Pacific Coast Highway, walking out on a hefty tab at a posh Malibu bar and punching a man on the Santa Monica pier, court records showed.

He soon landed in the psychiatric ward of Los Angeles' rough-and-tumble Twin Towers jail where he would spend about six weeks before being freed.

At first, his family, who live in Florida, didn't know where the doctor was, so Sawusch's elderly mother reached out to Flores asking him for help in finding her son. Flores drove from Fresno and located Sawusch in jail and told him his mother refused to post bail for him, as she thought it was safer for him to remain in custody while she sought to establish conservatorship over his affairs, court records showed.

That turned out to be a pivotal moment. The doctor agreed to grant Flores power of attorney in order to access Sawusch's accounts and pay his bail, prosecutors said.

Soon after, Flores wrote a text message to a friend: "I got power of attorney for the beach house," to which the friend replied: "Boom," according to court filings.

Court records showed that Sawsuch and Flores had discussed the measure as only temporary, but that Flores retained his access to the doctor's finances until his death.

In that time, prosecutors say approximately $3.1 million disappeared from Sawusch's accounts. After his death, Flores and Moore filed arguments in the probate court claiming Sawusch had promised them a third of his fortune and his home.

Later, following a long-running civil suit filed by Sawusch's family, Flores and Moore agreed to drop their claim and return what money they had left - about $2 million.

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