A Fairfax, Virginia, man has been sentenced to more than seven years in prison for conspiring to defraud the campaign of a Virginia state senator.
Former lawyer David H. Miller, 71, was sentenced Friday to 88 months in prison for defrauding SkyLink Air and Logistic Support Inc., the campaign of state Sen. Richard Saslaw and an autism organization Miller co-founded.
Miller was convicted back in October.
The scheme went on from 2011 to 2014, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Virginia.
Miller and his wife, Linda Diane Wallis, created two fake law firms and used them to bill SkyLink for legal work that was never actually done, prosecutors said. Miller and Wallis caused over $360,000 in losses to the company.
From 2013 to 2014, Miller and Wallis stole over $650,000 from Saslaw’s campaign said prosecutors. Wallis, who was serving as the campaign’s treasurer, issued over 70 fraudulent checks from the campaign account without the campaign’s or Saslaw’s knowledge. The money was deposited to accounts controlled by either Miller or Wallis.
And from 2011 to 2014, prosecutors said, Miller and Wallis misappropriated funds from The Community College Consortium on Autism and Intellectual Disabilities — an organization they co-founded that claimed to help community colleges develop programs for people with autism and other intellectual disabilities.
Miller and Wallis used over $600,000 — out of some $780,000 donated by colleges across the U.S. and a donor. Prosecutors said Miller and Wallis hid the money they stole in multiple bank accounts and spent it on mortgage payments, renovations to a beach property, country club fees and private air travel for a family vacation at a luxury resort.
In addition to his prison sentence, Miller must pay over $1.6 million in restitution and forfeit the same amount.
Wallis pleaded guilty in 2015, and was sentenced in 2016 to 56 months in prison for her role in the fraud schemes.
