An Anchorage woman who stole more than $70,000 from an elderly woman to pay for personal purchases, her own credit card bills and her daughter's college tuition pleaded guilty in federal court to related charges Tuesday.
Susanna Difranco, 53, pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud and one count of access device fraud. In exchange for her plea, a fourth charge will be dismissed at her upcoming December sentencing and Difranco waived her right to appeal her conviction and sentencing.
In the spring, Difranco transferred money and wrote checks from a 77-year-old woman's Alaska USA Federal Credit Union account, the indictment says. Court documents only name the victim as R.R. and say she is originally from Japan.
"Difranco knew that R.R. had trouble with her memory and suspected she had dementia," the plea agreement said. "Difranco was a family friend of R.R. and offered to assist R.R. with her taxes."
Difranco eventually obtained a bank card and online access to R.R.'s account by telling the bank teller R.R. was her mother. Difranco later changed R.R.'s bank account address to her own, the plea agreement said.
Every day for nearly a month, Difranco made the maximum ATM withdrawals allowed. She also used the bank card to make purchases from Spanx and Anthropologie and booked airline tickets to Las Vegas.
Difranco also wrote a $2,000 check to Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, with the elderly woman's money and another $12,000 check to Bank of America to pay a credit card bill.
R.R. noticed the money was missing in late April when she was preparing to take a trip to Japan. A fraud investigator discovered the online transfers into Difranco's account.
But in May, when Difranco was contacted by police, she told investigators she removed the money and wrote a check, which she claimed she moved into a safety deposit box for "safe keeping." The money to fund the check, Difranco said, was being held in a separate Credit Union 1 account.
Difranco also claimed the check to the college was sent at the request of R.R. for a scholarship fund.
None of the transactions were approved by R.R.
Difranco is tentatively scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 30 at 2 p.m.