- A social media influencer admitted to illegally obtaining over $1 million in pandemic-related loans.
- Danielle Miller used the money to help fund a lavish lifestyle, prosecutors said Monday.
A social media influencer, who befriended fake German heiress Anna Sorokin in jail, pleaded guilty to $1 million COVID loan fraud on Monday, according to the Department of Justice.
Danielle Miller, 32, from New York, appeared before a judge in Boston by video from a prison cell to plead guilty to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft charges.
Between July 2020 and May 2021, Miller stole the identities of more than 10 people to set up bank accounts and obtain pandemic-related loans that were meant for small businesses, prosecutors said. She assumed some of these identities via an online Massachusetts driver's license portal, they added.
Miller used the money to help fund her lavish lifestyle, which included buying luxury clothing and accessories, hiring private jets, and staying in five-star resorts, prosecutors said.
Her Instagram shows the influencer posing in front of a Rolls-Royce at the Beverly Hills Hotel in Los Angeles, and relaxing on Joia Beach in Miami. At the time of writing, Miller has more than 3o,000 followers.
During her video hearing on Monday, Miller agreed to forfeit $1.3 million as part of a plea deal with prosecutors and serve six years in prison. She is currently already carrying out a five-year sentence that was handed down to her in October last year in relation to a separate Florida bank fraud case.
Miller told New York Magazine in an interview last year that she considers herself to be a "con artist" who is "really charismatic" and good with people.
She said that during her time at Rikers, New York City's largest jail, she met Sorokin — also known as Anna Delvey — who showed her around and introduced her to people.
Miller said Delvey gave her lessons about how to live in jail, which included what the safest way was to make her bed, and how to trade potato chips for the chance to cut in line for the phones, New York Magazine reported. They have kept in touch, and even FaceTime, the magazine said.
As of January 2023, Delvey is under house arrest in her East Village apartment. She did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
COVID-19 was a "huge wave" for scammers, Miller also told New York Magazine, adding that she learned how to do it online and that it was something that she was especially good at.
"I'm so sought after it's insanity," she told the magazine. "My Instagram account from me being locked up has thousands, thousands of DMs asking me what my Telegram name is to work with me. Thousands."
Miller is scheduled to be sentenced on June 27.