- An Instagram influencer was sentenced to five years in prison for fraudulently obtaining over $1 million.
- Danielle Miller stole the identities of others to obtain pandemic-related loans, prosecutors said.
Instagram influencer Danielle Miller was sentenced to five years in prison on Thursday for fraudulently obtaining pandemic-related loans and using the money to fund a luxury lifestyle, according to the US Attorney's Office for Massachusetts.
The 32-year-old used the stolen identities of more than 10 people to obtain over $1 million in Covid loans between July 2020 and May 2021, the Attorney's Office said, using counterfeit driver's licenses with her photo but her victims' names.
"Ms. Miller isn't an influencer, she is a convicted felon," Acting United States Attorney Joshua S. Levy said in the statement.
"In a quest for fleeting social media stardom, Ms. Miller relied on fraud to fund a lavish lifestyle of private jets, luxury apartments, and other accouterments of wealth." Levy said, adding that the sentencing should show that creating a high-society social media identity off the backs of "hardworking taxpayers" is a "path to prison, not fleeting fame."
Miller seemingly used the money to fund an extravagant lifestyle, which she flaunted on her Instagram account.
In one instance she used a counterfeit ID to charter a private jet from Florida to California, where she booked a luxury hotel room under the same name, the Attorney's Office said.
Miller has over 34,000 followers on Instagram, where she is followed by Anna Sorokin, a convicted fraudster who infiltrated upper-class New York society circles by posing as a wealthy heiress.
Miller told New York Magazine in an interview last year that she considered herself to be a "con artist" who is "really charismatic" and good with people.
She was arrested in May 2021 and indicted by a grand jury a couple of months later.
In March, Miller pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated identity theft, as well as three counts of wire fraud.
This week District Court Chief Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV sentenced Miller to five years in prison and three years of supervised release. She was also ordered to pay restitution, with the exact amount yet to be determined.
Miller was recently ordered to forfeit some of the luxury items she fraudulently obtained, including a Rolex watch, a Louis Vuitton bag, and several Rimowa suitcases, as Insider's Kieran Press-Reynolds reported.
The US government also seized more than $600,000 from Miller's residence and bank accounts, according to the Notice of Forfeiture.