‘Grifters who prey on vulnerable.’ Fresno man sentenced in multi-million dollar fraud

A Fresno man has been sentenced for his role in a multi-million dollar fraud scheme in which he befriended a mentally ill man in order to take his money.

Anthony David Flores, a Fresno hairstylist also known as Anton David, was given 188 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $1 million in restitution, according to news release Monday from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Flores was arrested along with an accomplice Anna Rene Moore in January 2023.

“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, which investigated the case.

“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.”

The victim was a physician and investor who was worth more than $60 million. But he was unable to care for himself following a mental illness and multiple hospitalizations.

According to prosecutors, Flores and Moore met the man in 2017 and within days had moved into his beachfront home in Malibu, where they lived rent free as the man’s new “best friends” and caregivers.

In September of that year, the victim suffered a mental breakdown and was arrested. Flores used the opportunity to convince the victim to give over control his finances in order to order to post bail. He never relinquished that control.

Within days, Flores had open bank accounts in the victim’s name and was listed as the power of attorney.

Over the next nine months, prosecutors said, Flores and Moore lived with the victim, isolating him from family and friends and providing him with marijuana and LSD. All this while they moved his money into their own bank accounts.

At one point, the man did evict the pair from his home, prosecutors said, but they had installed cameras in the beach house and watched his deteriorating condition from a luxury hotel.

They moved back into the beach house following the victim’s death in 2018.

The fraud was ultimately discovered by the victim’s family, who filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court.

In that suit, Flores and Moore were ordered to return the money stolen from the victim. Instead, they attempted to launder the money through different accounts, the U.S. Attorney’s office said. That lawsuit was settled, with Flores and Moore withdrawing their false creditor’s claims and agreeing to repay the victim’s estate $1 million. That has not been done.

Moore, who also lived in Fresno and owned the defunct Fulton Yoga Collective, pleaded guilty in August 2023 to seven felonies related to the case. She is scheduled for sentencing Oct. 28.