Ex-wife of longtime fugitive admits to lying

Cecily Sturge pretended accused Ponzi schemer Scott Wolas was a brother

No, Cecily Sturge said. She had not spoken with her ex-husband, a disbarred lawyer accused of swindling millions in a string of Ponzi schemes.

Her ex, Scott J. Wolas, had eluded police for 20 years operating under seven different names. But Sturge told investigators she had no idea where he was.

In fact, Struge had been in contact with Wolas regularly after their marriage ended nearly 16 years ago. She even helped him rent a condo in Delray Beach, where he was arrested.

Sturge, now 70 and still living in Delray, pleaded guilty Tuesday in federal court in Boston to making a materially false statement to a federal agent, which is a felony.

She could face up to five years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000 when sentenced April 18.

Wolas is accused of cheating 19 investors out of $1.5 million in a pair of abandoned beachfront real estate deals in Quincy, Mass.

Federal investigators had been on Wolas’s trail since the early 1990s after they said they pinned him to one of his earliest schemes — using his family’s Long Islandbased liquor distribution business to lure investors into a scheme to import whiskies from Scotland, cheating them out of as much as $100 million.

Since then, federal officials say, Wolas pedaled Ponzi schemes in Florida, New York and Massachusetts.

His alleged spree came to an end in April 2017 when authorities arrested him at a Delray Beach condo a week after he told his then-girlfriend his real name.

He was using the name Eugene J. “Mike” Grathwohl at the time. The real Mike Grathwohl is a master plumber in Delray Beach and dated Sturge years ago.

Sturge helped her ex-husband hide from the law by passing him off as her brother, named Cameron Sturge, authorities said last year.

Messages between the condo owner and Sturge also included a photo of Sturge and information “indicating that Wolas (using the name Cameron Sturge) was Sturge’s brother and a retired paleontologist in need of a place to stay,” authorities said.

“The owner of the condo told authorities that Sturge and Wolas arrived at the condo together in the same car on Nov. 12, 2017, five days before Sturge’s interview with law enforcement.” Sturge was divorced from Wolas in 2001 by default judgment in Palm Beach County, investigators said. In February 2017, Sturge filed a petition to modify the judgment in order to obtain Wolas’ retirement account from his days as a Manhattan lawyer. The account had a balance of about $647,000, according to officials.

Wolas faces aggravated identity theft and wire fraud charges, which could result in up to 20 years in prison. Wolas is in negotiations with federal prosecutors, who said they hope to reach an agreement on a plea deal in March.

Information from the Associated Press and Sun Sentinel archives was used in this report.

achokey@sun-sentinel.com, 561-243-6531 or Twitter: @aric_chokey