MIAMI – After using a fake driver’s license to get a private jet from Florida to California and using COVID-19-related relief loans to live a life of luxury, a social media influencer from Miami has been sentenced to five years in prison, the Department of Justice confirmed in a press release Thursday.
Danielle “Dani” Miller, 33, the daughter of the former president of the New York State Bar Association, pleaded guilty on March 6 to three counts of wire fraud and two counts of aggravated identity theft in federal court, according to prosecutors.
Prosecutors said Miller regularly used social media to flash Prada, Fendi, Dior, Valentino, Louboutin, Gucci, Hermes, Rolex, and other symbols of her extravagant lifestyle. She claimed to come from old New York money when she showed off private jets, a Rolls Royce, and a Porsche — all while living in a Miami luxury apartment.
From in or around July 2020 through May 2021, investigators said Miller created and executed scheme to fraudulently obtain pandemic-related relief loans funded by the federal government – including Economic Injury Disaster Loan funds through the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) as well as Pandemic Unemployment Assistance and related unemployment benefits.
“Ms. Miller isn’t an influencer, she is a convicted felon. She stole the identities of innocent people to steal over $1.2 million in pandemic-relief loans that should have gone to people in need. In a quest for fleeting social media stardom, Ms. Miller relied on fraud to fund a lavish lifestyle of private jets, luxury apartments other accoutrements of wealth. Today’s sentencing should make it crystal clear that curating a high-society social media presence on the backs of hardworking taxpayers is a path to prison, not fleeting fame,” said Acting United States Attorney Joshua S. Levy in Thursday’s press release.
Miller’s criminal record includes several fraud-related arrests in 2020, and 2021. She was at the center of investigations when she flaunted her black GPS ankle monitor on a “#housearrest” TikTok post that got over 2,000 hearts.
“I can truly say that I wholeheartedly enjoy carrying out plans and involving myself in challenging experiences,” she wrote in her Linkedin bio.
Prosecutors said Miller also possessed counterfeit driver’s licenses in the victims’ names but bearing Miller’s photograph.
In August 2020, detectives said Miller used a counterfeit driver’s license in the name of a Massachusetts victim to arrange a Gulfstream private jet charter flight from Florida to California, where she stayed at a luxury hotel under the same victim’s name. In a separate instance, Miller used the identity of another victim to rent a luxury apartment in Florida, according to investigators.
Miller has maintained an active social media presence via her Instagram account, which has more than 34,000 followers. There, authorities said Miller posted her extravagant use of the fraud proceeds and stolen identities, publicizing her purchasing of luxury goods and renting of luxury accommodations.
Posts to the account included a video showing Miller at luxury hotels in California where transactions were made using the bank account in one of the victim’s names, detectives said.
“I more so consider myself a con artist than anything,” Miller told New York Magazine last year. “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.”
The investigation was conducted by Miami’s Homeland Security’s Investigation’s Document and Benefit Fraud Task Force.
Local 10 News digital journalist Andrea Torres contributed to this story.
from U.S. - Latest - Google News https://ift.tt/0lBK6JL
via IFTTT
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar