Dearborn Heights man with long criminal history sentenced to 10 years for fraud

FOX 2 - A Dearborn Heights man was sentenced this week for his role in several fraud schemes totaling $1.2 million, according to the US Attorney's Office Eastern District of Michigan.

The backstory:

Joseph Miller, 53, was sentenced to more than 10 years in federal prison after having pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit bank fraud, and aggravated identity theft.  

Miller, who was sentenced to 129 months in prison, has a criminal history including 18 prior felony convictions, according to court records.

Investigators say Miller participated in three separate fraud schemes.  

In the first scheme, Miller used stolen identities to open charge accounts in the names of unsuspecting victims.  Miller and others used them to make $912,000 in fraudulent purchases from two separate retailers.

In the second scheme, Miller also used stolen identities to get fraudulent loans from a financial institution.

Miller and others, defrauded the financial institution with approximately $172,000 in loans.

In the third scheme, Miller and his co-conspirators caused fraudulent Economic Injury Disaster Loan applications to be submitted for several businesses.  

The Small Business Administration EIDL is a program run to provide low-interest financing to small businesses affected by declared disasters.  

In total, Miller and his co-conspirators obtained $203,970 in fraudulent relief funds from this program.