Fraud Friday – Social Media Influencer Pleads Guilty to $1.5 Million COVID Fraud Scheme
March 10, 2023
Delaney Sexton
Contributing Editor
Fraud Friday – Social Media Influencer Pleads Guilty to $1.5 Million COVID Fraud Scheme
Danielle Miller flaunted trips in a private jet, a luxury hotel room, driving a Rolls-Royce, a Louis Vuitton bag, and a luxury apartment she rented in Florida to her 34,000 followers. Now she is flaunting an ankle monitor after pleading guilty to three counts of wire fraud and two counts of aggravated identity theft.
Starting in July 2020, Miller fraudulently applied to the EIDL program and the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program using the personal identifying information of over 10 individuals. For the EIDLs, she created fake business names for the applications.
In May 2021, she was arrested after obtaining an individual’s personal identifying information from their Registry of Motor Vehicles (RMV) account. Then, she opened a bank account, filed for an EIDL, and received $102,000 in loan proceeds with this information. With the SBA loan, she booked a flight with the bank account and a driver’s license in the victim’s name.
Later, the DOJ found that the same IP address used for the first EIDL also accessed the RMV accounts of other individuals. These RMV accounts applied for a total of $900,000 in SBA funds.
Danielle Miller is scheduled to be sentenced on June 27, 2023.
