These past three years have been challenging for many people, both economically and socially, due to the COVID-19 lockdown. The government has tried to combat this economic decline with stimulus checks that help families who can’t afford to be out of a job for an extended period. Danielle Miller, a 32-year-old Instagram influencer, was sentenced to 5 years in prison, with 3 years of supervised release, for stealing the identities of more than 10 people and using the stolen identities to obtain COVID stimulus relief checks, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Massachusetts stated in a press release.
Unlike people who may have stolen other people’s identities to get stimulus checks to support their families or to simply survive, Miller used these illegally obtained checks to rent luxury apartments and fly on private planes. Antonio Planas, an NBC News reporter, said, “Miller also used a counterfeit driver’s license in the name of a Massachusetts victim to secure a private jet charter flight from Florida to California. In another instance, prosecutors said, Miller used the identity of another victim to rent a luxury apartment in Florida.”
There is no reasonable explanation for her stealing the identity of more than 10 people to receive $1.5 million when the people she stole from are most likely concerned about where their next meal is coming from, not which luxury hotel they’ll be staying at next.
Miller’s actions are undeniably unjustifiable because she stole real people’s identities and masqueraded as someone who needed financial help. Her actions most likely made it more difficult for others to get help and will make the future process of getting help harder. The funny thing is, Miller wasn’t in monetary need even before she was an influencer. In a New York Magazine story last year about her privileged upbringing in Manhattan and her troubled life, Miller said she is a ‘con artist,’ Planas reports.
Miller shows vast selfishness and a lack of empathy for people who struggled with paying to put their loved ones in the ground due to COVID deaths. So, no, her actions are not justifiable. There is no reasonable explanation for her stealing the identity of more than 10 people to receive $1.5 million when the people she stole from are most likely concerned about where their next meal is coming from, not which luxury hotel they’ll be staying at next.
What she could’ve done and almost got away with should never be possible again. However, it would be very myopic not to realize how her actions also affect the people in need who are legally applying for stimulus checks. Her actions will undoubtedly cause the government to be more diligent in the process. When it comes to her sentencing, I do think that it is too light. She only really spends 2 years in prison. I believe she should’ve gotten 5, with another 3 to 5 years of supervised release, but then again, I have limited knowledge of what reasonable sentencing is.
Of course, there are deeper reasons as to why Miller lied in order to have luxury apartments and chartered private planes. It’s not enough to post about your day anymore, you have to post about your day on a private jet going to somewhere like Bali or the Maldives. People nowadays aren’t interested in the bagel you ate or the dog you walked, which means for people to grab the attention of others online, they must live a life of luxury, a luxury that they sometimes do not have and have to lie about like Miller. . Miller’s actions result from the need to keep up a false image to appeal to the public. An idea that required others to get hurt. Miller isn’t the first, and definitely won’t be the last, to use and exploit others to maintain a false image of wealth and luxury.
fmendez1@ramapo.edu
Featured photo courtesy of Karolina Grabowski, Pexels
