US influencer admits to having defrauded US$ 1 million in pandemic aid – 03/06/2023 – Market

An influencer and self-proclaimed scammer confessed this Monday (6) that she fraudulently obtained more than $ 1 million (R $ 5.1 million) in loans from the United States government related to the Covid-19 pandemic, and she used the money to fund the lavish lifestyle he flaunted on Instagram.

Danielle Miller, whose scams in this and other cases were described in a New York Magazine profile last year, appeared before a federal judge in Boston, via video link from a holding cell, to plead guilty to wire fraud and on charges aggravated identity theft.

As part of a plea deal with prosecutors, the 33-year-old woman agreed to forfeit $1.3 million and serve six years in prison, 16 months of which could coincide with a five-year sentence she received in October in a bank fraud case in Florida. Her sentence will be known at a hearing scheduled for June 27.

Prosecutors said Miller used the identities of more than 10 people to fraudulently open bank accounts and obtain more than $1 million in pandemic-related loans targeted at small businesses.

She used the money for travel and luxury shopping, picking up items like a Rolex watch, a Louis Vuitton bag and Dior shoes. Miller posted photos on Instagram of herself in luxury hotels in California, where she used a bank account in the name of one of her victims.

Originally from New York, Miller is the daughter of a former president of the New York State Bar and a graduate of the prestigious Horace Mann School. She was already facing charges in the Florida state court fraud case when she was arrested in May 2021 at a luxury Miami apartment she moved into during the pandemic.

“Honestly, I consider myself more of a scam artist than anything,” Miller said in the New York Magazine article.

The case is an example of fraud that has become frequent as the federal government has rushed to distribute more than $5 trillion in relief funds to people, businesses and local governments affected by the pandemic.