Feds say Las Vegas woman romanced men online, then stole from them
Alan Riquelmy
LAS VEGAS (CN) — A Las Vegas woman facing multiple federal charges found victims through online dating apps, drugged them to access their finances and, in one case, left them for dead, federal authorities said Friday.
Aurora Phelps, 43, faces 21 criminal accusations, including kidnapping resulting in death, bank fraud, identity theft, and wire fraud. Having residences in both Las Vegas and Guadalajara, Mexico, Phelps remained in custody Friday in Mexico, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Nevada said in a Friday statement.
The top prosecutor said Phelps would find men online before meeting them in person. She’d drug the men, access their finances and steal from them. Grand jurors found in one case Phelps sold over $3 million of a victim’s stock in Apple.
If convicted, Phelps faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.
A grand jury indicted Phelps in late 2023. However, the indictment was sealed. Authorities opted to unseal it this month, enabling them to hold a press conference about Phelps and potentially find other victims.
Phelps is accused of meeting and stealing from the men between July 2021 to December 2022.
In one encounter, grand jurors wrote that Phelps connected with an elderly man online in November 2022. They later met at a Las Vegas restaurant, where she had him consume medicine and other substances that made him grow lethargic and confused.
Shortly afterward, Phelps accessed his credit card, getting the man to use the card in his drugged state and make several purchases. The same day, while apparently still under the influence, the man, Phelps and her daughter traveled to Mexico City, grand jurors said in the indictment.
“Several days later, defendant returned to Nevada without Victim 2, who had died in the hotel room in Mexico City,” the grand jurors wrote.
Over the following days and weeks, Phelps transferred money from the man’s account to her and her husband’s account. She also withdrew money from ATMs and bought items online, like airline tickets, hotel rooms and a motorcycle, the grand jury stated.
Another man went on a date with Phelps in May 2022 in the Guadalajara region of Mexico. Police went to his home after his daughter couldn’t reach him the next day, finding the man dead on the bathroom floor, grand jurors said.
“Over the next several days, defendant conducted or attempted to conduct transactions using Victim 4's financial accounts, including using Victim 4's financial account to purchase a gold coin that defendant caused to be mailed to her house,” the grand jury wrote.
A third man connected online with Phelps in July 2021, meeting him for lunch over the following two months. In November, Phelps had lunch delivered to his home and then got him to take a prescription drug without him knowing. Mostly unconscious for some five days, the man had his electronic devices, driver’s license, and financial information taken. Phelps then accessed his bank accounts, pulling money from them and making online purchases, grand jurors wrote.
Phelps also accessed the man’s online stock trading account, sold Apple stock valued at $3.3 million, and tried to move the funds from the account.
According to the grand jury, a fourth victim met Phelps in December 2021 at a Guadalajara casino. They left together, “and caused him to disappear.”
Over the next year, Phelps moved money from his accounts to her own, opened a bank account in his name, and got his Social Security payments transferred to an account she controlled. Phelps also tried to change his retirement account beneficiary, the grand jury found.
The FBI has asked anyone victimized by Phelps or who knows someone victimized by her to contact them at 1-800-CALL-FBI or through FBI.gov/AuroraPhelpsVictims.