A California couple allegedly kept a bipolar Malibu eye surgeon on weekly ketamine injections for nearly a year in order to steal millions of dollars before he died in 2018.
Yoga instructor Anna Moore, 39, and her then-boyfriend, hairstylist Anthony Flores, 46, were indicted in February and charged with conspiracy, identity theft, mail fraud, money laundering, and more after allegedly embezzling nearly $3 million from surgeon Mark Sawusch, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The couple met Sawusch at an ice cream parlor near Venice Beach in June 2017. Just two weeks earlier, the New York Post reported, Sawusch was released from a mental rehabilitation center after he had tried to commit suicide. The three chatted for a bit before Sawusch invited him back to his beachfront house. The couple readily agreed, and Sawusch let them drive his Tesla, which they took on a weekend trip to Yosemite National Park.
Soon, Sawusch invited the couple to move into his home without paying rent, referring to them as his “personal 911” and “best friends,” the Post reported.
Sawusch had a history of manic episodes, which resulted in numerous hospitalizations and stints in jail. His bipolar disorder ended his career and made him unable to care for himself, the Times reported. For years he had struggled with depression, but things took a turn in 2015 when he went to the UCLA Medical Center in Santa Monica saying he needed help. This ended up being the first of eight hospitalizations for extreme bipolar disorder.
He took lithium but didn’t always take the multiple drugs he was prescribed. During one manic episode, he stopped showing up for work, prompting his employees to call paramedics for a welfare check. When paramedics arrived, they found Sawusch on the floor of his living room covered in blood and feces, the Times reported. He had burns, scratches, and deep cuts all over his body, as well as grill marks on his left forearm. He gave varying accounts of what happened, but doctors surmised he had attempted suicide.
The wounds to his hands caused permanent damage that kept him from ever performing surgery again.
By the time he met Flores and Moore, Sawusch was friendless and had no family. At one point, he told Flores that he hoped to fill his beach house with people and music. Flores allegedly said he could make that happen.
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But after just three weeks of having Flores and Moore live with him, Sawusch called the police to escort the couple from his home. The call came after he had been arrested for battery for assaulting someone on the Santa Monica Pier and got six days of psychiatric care.
“OMG,” Sawusch texted a friend, according to the Times. “I just realized Anna and Anton are f***ing white collar tax fraud criminals who tried to steal my Tesla and home. OMG. I am sooo gullible.”
But after the couple left, Sawusch continued to deteriorate, spending seven weeks in a downtown Los Angeles, California, jail. Flores kept in contact with the 57-year-old surgeon, and was granted power of attorney for an unknown reason.
Flores and Moore began withdrawing money from Sawusch’s accounts and putting it into their own, as well as using the doctor’s money for luxury purchases and vacations, investigators said. They sent Sawusch to weekly ketamine injections – saying it was to treat his depression, according to authorities. They allegedly hired six massage therapists to provide Sawusch with 12 hours of massage treatments a day.
Two weeks before Sawusch died, Flores and Moore allegedly began giving him LSD, which caused his health to rapidly deteriorate. He began freaking out at his weekly ketamine injection, and Flores and Moore thought they would be evicted again, so they left for Memorial Day weekend. They allegedly told the staff at the beach house – whom they hired – not to speak to Sawusch as he took drugs and threw himself around the house.
They watched him through dozens of surveillance cameras installed in the home, but only called police after massage therapists found Sawusch dead, investigators said. According to police, after the doctor’s death, Flores and Moore moved back into the home and removed millions from his bank account.
The couple, who have since broken up, told the Times they acted in Sawusch’s best interest and tried to help him through his disorder.