SCRANTON, Pa. — A Pennsylvania man will serve more than 10 years in prison after being convicted of securing more than $2.1 million from fraudulent COVID-19 pandemic loans, authorities said this week.
Christopher J. Miller, 36, of Wayne County, was convicted earlier this year of bank fraud, aggravated identity theft, and unlawful monetary transactions. He was sentenced last Friday to a prison term of 149 months by U.S. District Judge Julia K. Munley, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.
Miller was found guilty of submitting approximately 50 fraudulent applications for pandemic stimulus funds, including the Payment Protection Program, Economic Injury and Disaster Loans, and Pandemic Unemployment Insurance benefits.
Some of the applications submitted by Miller were filed on behalf of corporate entities under his control that did not have actual business operations, bore false addresses, had false IRS-issued Employee Identification Numbers, and other fraudulent information, prosecutors said.
He also submitted applications in the names of relatives and friends, along with some in his own name. In exchange, his friends and family gave him cash kickbacks, prosecutors said.
Miller received more than $2.1 million in pandemic benefits. Instead of spending the money on business expenses, as intended, Miller used the funds to buy automobiles, vacations, real estate, and to pay for other personal expenses.
Munley called Miller's activities a "devious, extensive, and elaborate scheme to swindle the United States government," noting that when authorities executed a search warrant on his home, Miller and his wife fled to South Carolina, where they continued living under assumed names until authorities apprehended them.
