Instagram influencer sentenced to 5 years in prison for using stolen identities to secure pandemic loans

An Instagram influencer was sentenced to five years in prison Thursday for using stolen identities to secure more than $1 million in pandemic-related loans — finances she used to flaunt her lavish lifestyle on social media, federal prosecutors said.

Danielle Miller, 32, who has more than 34,000 followers on Instagram, used the stolen identities of more than 10 people to obtain pandemic-relief loans, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Massachusetts.

She then used the funds from the fraudulently obtained loans to live a high-society lifestyle that included chartering a private jet and renting a luxury apartment, the statement said.

Miller, of Miami, was sentenced by a federal judge to five years in prison and three years of supervised release, prosecutors said. She was also ordered to pay restitution, but the amount will be determined at a later date.

In March, she pleaded guilty to three counts of wire fraud and two counts of aggravated identity theft.

Attorney Mitchell C. Elman, who represents Miller, said in an emailed statement Thursday: “Ms. Miller has accepted responsibility for her actions and has expressed her remorse to the Court, the Government and the victims affected.”

Acting U.S. Attorney Joshua S. Levy, with the District of Massachusetts, said in a statement that Miller used the ill-gotten funds to bolster her social media presence.

“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,” he said.

“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,” Levy added.

Between July 2021 and May 2021, Miller “devised and executed a scheme” to obtain pandemic loans from the federal government, prosecutors said. These loans included funds from the Economic Injury Disaster Loan, through the U.S. Small Business Administration, and Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, prosecutors said.

In the scheme, prosecutors said Miller also used fake business names to apply for and secure the federal loans. Additionally, she had counterfeit driver’s licenses with the names of the victims, but with her photograph on the licenses.

On her Instagram account, Miller publicized a luxurious lifestyle, including posts from posh hotels in California expensed using a bank account from one of the victim’s whose identity was stolen, prosecutors said.