An Instagram influencer was sentenced to 5 years in jail Thursday for utilizing stolen identities to safe greater than $1 million in pandemic-related loans — funds she used to flaunt her lavish life-style on social media, federal prosecutors stated.
Danielle Miller, 32, who has greater than 34,000 followers on Instagram, used the stolen identities of greater than 10 folks to acquire pandemic-relief loans, in keeping with an announcement from the U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace, District of Massachusetts.
She then used the funds from the fraudulently obtained loans to stay a high-society life-style that included chartering a non-public jet and renting a luxurious condo, the assertion stated.
Miller, of Miami, was sentenced by a federal decide to 5 years in jail and three years of supervised launch, prosecutors stated. She was additionally ordered to pay restitution, however the quantity will probably be decided at a later date.
In March, she pleaded responsible to a few counts of wire fraud and two counts of aggravated id theft.
Lawyer Mitchell C. Elman, who represents Miller, stated in an emailed assertion Thursday: “Ms. Miller has accepted duty for her actions and has expressed her regret to the Court docket, the Authorities and the victims affected.”
Performing U.S. Lawyer Joshua S. Levy, with the District of Massachusetts, stated in an announcement that Miller used the ill-gotten funds to bolster her social media presence.
“At the moment’s sentencing ought to make it crystal clear that curating a high-society social media presence on the backs of hardworking taxpayers is a path to jail, not fleeting fame,” he stated.
“Ms. Miller isn’t an influencer, she is a convicted felon. She stole the identities of harmless folks to steal over $1.2 million in pandemic-relief loans that ought to have gone to folks in want,” Levy added.
Between July 2021 and Might 2021, Miller “devised and executed a scheme” to acquire pandemic loans from the federal authorities, prosecutors stated. These loans included funds from the Financial Harm Catastrophe Mortgage, via the U.S. Small Enterprise Administration, and Pandemic Unemployment Help, prosecutors stated.
Within the scheme, prosecutors stated Miller additionally used faux enterprise names to use for and safe the federal loans. Moreover, she had counterfeit driver’s licenses with the names of the victims, however together with her {photograph} on the licenses.
On her Instagram account, Miller publicized an opulent life-style, together with posts from posh inns in California expensed utilizing a checking account from one of many sufferer’s whose id was stolen, prosecutors stated.
Miller additionally used a counterfeit driver’s license within the title of a Massachusetts’ sufferer to safe a non-public jet constitution flight from Florida to California. In one other occasion, Miller, prosecutors stated, used the id of one other sufferer to hire a luxurious condo in Florida.