- In March, social media influencer Danielle Miller pleaded guilty to a COVID-19 relief fraud scheme.
- The court has now ordered her to forfeit numerous luxury items she obtained with the money.
- Miller has been charged with three counts of wire fraud, which each hold a prison sentence of up to 20 years.
In March, 32-year-old influencer Danielle Miller pleaded guilty to fraudulently obtaining $1.5 million in COVID-19 relief loans to fund her lavish lifestyle, including buying designer goods, chartering private jets, and renting a luxury apartment.
According to a Notice of Forfeiture posted on Monday, the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts has now ordered her to forfeit some of these luxury items. Among them are a Rolex watch, a Louis Vuitton bag, several Rimowa suitcases, and more.
Miller, who has over 34,000 Instagram followers, was arrested in May 2021 and indicted by a grand jury a couple of months later. On March 6, she pleaded guilty to three counts of wire fraud and two counts of aggravated identity theft.
According to a press release from the Department of Justice, the scheme included her impersonating more than ten people from July 2020 to May 2021 to acquire a total of $1.5 million in Economic Injury Disaster Loans, which were supposed to be for small businesses in need. The release stated she created fake business names and counterfeit driver’s licenses to do so.
The US government has now seized more than $600,000 from Miller’s residence and bank accounts, according to the Notice of Forfeiture. The influencer is also required to give up the following designer goods she purchased with the loan money: a Louis Vuitton bag, a Rolex watch, a pair of Dior shoes and a Dior blouse, and two Rimowa suitcases.
In an interview with New York Magazine in February last year, Miller seemed to tout her schemes proudly. She told the outlet that she considers herself more of a “con artist than anything” and disclosed more details of how she used the fraudulent money to flaunt a decadent lifestyle to her Instagram account, including pictures of herself standing next to luxury cars and holding expensive handbags.
Miller had already spent time at Rikers Island, which houses New York City’s largest jail, for using stolen credit card information to book appointments at a spa on the Upper West Side. While there, the magazine reported that she met Anna Sorokin, the infamous scammer also known as Anna Delvey, whose crimes inspired the Netflix series “Inventing Anna.”
Before Miller made news headlines for her recent COVID-19 fraud, she was the victim of one of the earliest cases of viral revenge porn on the internet. Known as “Swiffer Girl” when she was only 13 years old, Miller told New York Magazine as an adult that she found that the reputation it gave her was nearly impossible to escape. Miller’s story was the subject of an episode of the Hulu docuseries “The Age of Influence” released earlier this year.
Miller pleaded guilty to three counts of wire fraud, which each hold up to 20 years in prison; she also faces two charges of aggravated identity theft, which each have a mandatory two-year prison sentence after other sentences are imposed.
When reached, Miller’s attorney, Mitchell Elman, told Insider they would not comment on the case until after the sentencing date, which he said will be on September 7.
She’s currently serving a five-year sentence for a separate bank fraud case in Florida that involved her attempting to use a fake passport to obtain money at a Chase drive-through window in 2020.
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