A social media influencer pleaded guilty this week to using more than $1 million in pandemic relief funds to pay for a lavish lifestyle that she flaunted online. Her former business partner and friend, a victim of her scheming years before her latest con, said he was relieved and anxious to hear the news of her plea.
Mackinzie Dae was initially elated to hear that Danielle Miller was behind bars just after learning about her guilty plea Monday to wire fraud and identity theft charges, but his fear that she might manipulate the situation grew as he talked about her.
Dae is a former combat veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan and turned to public relations and social media influencing after his military service. He said that Miller used his identity to open bank accounts, credit cards and even tried to finance a Tesla in his name while they were building a PR firm together — destroying his credit and even leading to the repossession of his car.
Dae, 34, who met Miller in 2018 through a mutual friend, said over the phone that he worried she had “something up her sleeve or some kind of angle” in pleading guilty. He maintained, however, that her arrest “should have happened sooner.”
“This girl terrifies me,” he said.
Still, Dae said he was hopeful the guilty plea could lead to more people coming forward.
“The more and more publicity that she gets, the more and more people are going to come forward and be like, ‘Oh my God, this woman ruined my life,’” Dae said.
Miller, 32, took on the identities of multiple people to take advantage of the government coronavirus aid used to help small businesses during the lockdowns that began in 2020. The U.S. attorney’s office said she obtained around $1.5 million through fraud to fund a glamorous life that she shared with the followers of her Instagram account, @killadmilla.
In a video hearing on Monday, Miller agreed in a plea deal to forfeit $1.3 million and serve a six-year sentence in prison. She…
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