A social media influencer has pleaded responsible to fraudulently acquiring greater than $1m in COVID-19 pandemic-related loans from the US authorities used to fund a lavish life-style which she flaunted on Instagram.
Danielle Miller, a self-proclaimed con artist whose scams have been chronicled in a New York Magazine profile final yr, appeared earlier than a common decide in Boston by video from a jail cell to plead responsible to wire fraud and aggravated identification theft costs.
The 33-year-old additionally agreed to forfeit $1.3m (£1m) as a part of a plea cope with prosecutors and serve six years in jail, 16 months of which may overlap with a five-year sentence she was handed in October in a separate Florida financial institution fraud case.
Miller has been accused by prosecutors of utilizing the identities of greater than 10 folks to fraudulently arrange financial institution accounts and procure greater than $1m (£831,450) in pandemic-related loans supposed for small companies.
She is claimed to have spent the cash on journey and luxurious gadgets together with a Rolex, a Louis Vuitton bag and Dior sneakers, in addition to posting photographs on Instagram of herself at opulent lodges in California the place she used a checking account within the identify of considered one of her victims.
Miller, initially from New York, is the daughter of a former New York State Bar Association president and was additionally a pupil on the prestigious Horace Mann School.
She was already dealing with costs in a separate Florida state courtroom fraud case when she was arrested in May 2021 at a luxurious house in Miami, which she had moved into throughout the pandemic.
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“Honestly, I more so consider myself a con artist than anything,” Miller was quoted as saying within the New York Magazine article.
“You know how they have that saying that you can sell ice to an Eskimo? If there’s something that I want, I’m getting it.”
More than 1,000 folks have been convicted of defrauding COVID reduction programmes, based on the US Government Accountability Office.
Miller’s case is an instance of fraud that turned rampant because the federal authorities rushed to distribute greater than $5trn (£4.1trn) in reduction funds to assist folks, companies and native governments affected by the pandemic attributable to lockdowns and closures.
Last week, the White House mentioned President Joe Biden was planning to ask Congress to supply $1.6bn (£1.3bn) in new funding to crack down on fraud tied to programmes.
Miller is because of be sentenced on 27 June.
Source: information.sky.com”