A businessman has claimed a Las Vegas stripper preyed on him during a messy divorce and conned him out of millions while pretending to be his girlfriend.
Fred Michael Brunner, 61, claimed Melanie Sterling, 47, spotted him at a strip club when he was sad and lonely and spent a decade bleeding him of $3.5 million.
Eventually Sterling, born Melanie Slutzky, convinced him to buy them a $720,000 house in Las Vegas where they could live together, and split the proceeds if they broke up.
But his lawsuit in the Circuit Court of Washington County, Arkansas, where he lives in Fayetteville, claimed she squirreled it away in a trust so he couldn’t access it.
The businessman claimed Melanie Sterling, 47, (pictured with her brother) spotted him at a strip club when he was sad and lonely and spent a decade bleeding him of $3.5 million
Brunner claimed Sterling was secretly in a relationship with another man for the whole 10 years they were seeing each other, until he found out in January.
His lawsuit demands the $3.5 million back along with his half of the house, and $35 million in punitive damages from Sterling and 20 unnamed co-conspirators.
Brunner’s lawsuit described how after his marriage to Elizabeth Stensgaard began to break down in January 2014, he found himself in Las Vegas that June.
‘Given his emotional distress, [he] decided to go to a gentlemen’s club to smoke a cigar and have a few cocktails… he sat alone at his table, lit his cigar and began ordering drinks,’ the lawsuit recalled.
Sterling noticed he was sitting alone ‘wearing nice clothing, an expensive watch, and likely in a vulnerable state given his lack of company’ and ‘locked on’ to him.
‘She did what all such adult dangers presumably do in their profession’ and prioritized the patrons likely to spend the most money,’ the lawsuit claimed.
Brunner claimed Sterling knew ‘from her experience’ that he was the best kind of customer ‘to take advantage of’.
Sterling then led him by the hand to a back room for a private dance and listened as he spilled his guts about his marital woes, the lawsuit claimed.
That made him ‘vulnerable to her allurement’ and marked her as ‘her primary target for a much more profitable enterprise’.
‘Sterling learned that [Brunner] was far wealthier than her normal patrons – wealthy enough to change her life,’ the lawsuit claimed.
They exchanged phone numbers and started texting, Sterling ‘pretending to be a shoulder to cry on’, and eventually became romantic.
Sterling soon became his primary support as he complained about his ‘exceedingly complex, litigious, and outright draining’ divorce.
‘As time went on, Sterling had hoodwinked [Brunner] into thinking they were in an exclusive, romantic relationship’, and she started asking for cash, the lawsuit claimed.
Sterling (pictured with her brother and father) learned about Fred Brunner’s marital woes and came up with a scheme to bleed him dry
Brunner frequently visited her in Las Vegas and took her on ‘extravagant’ holidays where her ‘footed the bill for everything’.
The lawsuit detailed how Sterling sent thousands of texts, chatted to him in long, romantic phone calls, and told him she loved him.
She also sent him romantic cards in the mail and left love notes when they were together – making him think ‘she was the love of his life’.
Brunner claimed her act was so convincing that she met the most important people in his life and even became a ‘grandmother figure’ to his grandchildren.
The lawsuit claimed he gave Sterling money, often five-figure sums, whenever she asked – totaling at least 100 times over their decade together.
‘Sterling had convinced [Brunner] that the following his divorce, they would live together and grow old as lovers,’ it claimed.
‘[He] was so convinced that Sterling was his soulmate, he would even send financial support to Sterling’s friends at Sterling’s specific request.’
The lawsuit detailed how Brunner gave her ‘exorbitant’ amounts of cash along with gifts and paying for her expenses and cosmetic surgeries.
Sterling then told him she wanted a house where they could live together in Las Vegas, and they also decided to build one in Arkansas so they could live between the two states.
Brunner claimed he agreed to buy the house on the condition that she would maintain and improve it while he was away, and they would sell the home and split the proceeds if they ever broke up.
He bought the 4,980sqft, six-bedroom, 5.5 bathroom newly built house on El Malpais Street for $720,000 on September 23, 2019.
The house is estimated to now be worth about $1.28 million.
Brunner bought this 4,980sqft, six-bedroom, 5.5 bathroom newly built house on El Malpais Street for $720,000 on September 23, 2019
Brunner claimed he agreed to put the house in Sterling’s name because she was worried that if he died, his children could try to take it from her in court.
However, just a week after the house was settled, Sterling secretly transferred it into a trust in her name, which Brunner claimed was a scheme to stop him from accessing it financially.
Everything came crashing down in January when Brunner learned about her real boyfriend, whom he claimed she was seeing since before he met her at the strip club.
The lawsuit claimed Sterling ‘pilfered’ money from Brunner to send to her boyfriend, and numerous other people who were in on the scam.
After he found out, Brunner claimed she ghosted him and he was forced to sue her to get the house and his money back.
Sterling is yet to file a defense.