A frightening report claims that a yoga instructor and a hairstylist allegedly kept a lonely, bipolar Malibu doctor away from his family for more than a year and injected him with ketamine so they could steal millions of dollars before he died alone.
Friends and coworkers of the deceased Mark Sawusch said to the Los Angeles Times that Anna Moore, 39, and Anthony Flores, 46, used their close connection to coerce the doctor into giving up control of his finances.
The cunning duo, who were charged with offenses such as conspiracy, identity theft, mail fraud, and money laundering in February, are accused of stealing about $3 million from Sawusch and attempting to take an additional $20 million following his passing in 2018, New York Post reported.
They are accused of sending Sawusch to weekly ketamine injections and feeding him LSD, psilocybin mushrooms, and marijuana while spending his money on clothing, lavish parties, and weekend trips.
"It seemed like to me they just kept him drugged," massage therapist Dora Peterson told the outlet. "He was out of it. He couldn't carry on a conversation."
Moore and Flores stumbled upon their alleged victim at an ice cream parlor off Venice Beach in June 2017, just two weeks after he was released from a mental rehabilitation center for attempted suicide.
After conversing with the couple, Sawusch gave them the keys to his Tesla, which they used to travel to Yosemite National Park for the weekend and invited them to his beachside home to watch the sunset with him.
The friendship quickly developed further. Sawusch referred to the couple as his "personal 911" and "best friends," and urged them to come in with him rent-free.
Sawusch was unmarried, had no children, and lived across the country from his family. He had previously been hospitalized and imprisoned for violent outbursts during manic episodes. After hurting his hands in a suicide attempt, he lost the ability to perform surgery and was unable to take care of himself.
Sawusch was detained on a battery charge for allegedly hitting someone on the Santa Monica Pier in July. 4, less than a month after first meeting Moore and Flores. He spent a night in jail before receiving six days of psychiatric treatment before the couple took him home, according to the LA Times.
After three weeks, Sawusch aggressively booted the pair from his home and called the police to escort them out.
"OMG," Sawusch texted a friend. "I just realized Anna and Anton are f–cking white collar tax fraud criminals who tried to steal my Tesla and home. OMG. I am sooo gullible."
After several more arrests and a seven-week stink in a downtown LA jail, Sawusch gave into Flores' suggestion and granted him a power of attorney so he could withdraw enough money from his accounts to post bail.
Sawusch invited Moore and Flores to move back in with him because he was grateful for his freedom and desperate for the exciting life they had promised.
Moore and Flores apparently used Sawusch's bank accounts to transfer millions of dollars into their own accounts and hired 20 housekeepers, handymen, and other workers, including six massage therapists.
They forced him to undergo daily 12-hour massage sessions in addition to weekly ketamine injections for his depression, a decision the technicians tried to push back against.
"It was wild," Peterson said. "Who gets six massages a day, seven days a week? ... He would just be kind of like a vegetable."
Sawusch's health visibly started to decline after the couple gave him LSD two weeks before his death, Peterson said.
In the following days, Sawusch freaked out during his 43rd ketamine treatment, prosecutors said. He was talking, laughing, and pressing forcefully into his eyes and ears.
Moore and Flores, sensing they would be booted from the home for the second time, escaped on a Memorial Day weekend retreat to Santa Monica.
They instructed workers not to speak to Sawusch, who was abusing narcotics and irrationally hurling himself about the house, according to the LA Times.
The report claims that while the residence was equipped with numerous security cameras, the couple only phoned the police when the massage therapists discovered the manic doctor dead.
Prosecutors claim that after Sawusch passed away in May 2018, they re-entered his house and started withdrawing substantial sums of money from his account.
The now-separated Moore and Flores have insisted they were merely acting in Sawusch's best interests and were attempting to assist him to deal with his deteriorating mental state.
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