McKeesport man indicted in large fraud conspiracy

A McKeesport man and others stole the identity of a local company in 2010 and used that information to steal electronics from three other companies, federal prosecutors say.

A federal grand jury on Aug. 11 indicted Daniel K. Miller, 52, on fraud charges, conspiracy to commit money laundering and related counts.

Miller's attorney, Alexander Lindsay, declined comment.

According to the indictment, the suspects obtained the banking and credit information of a local business, identified as “Victim 1,” that frequently buys goods from vendors nationwide.

Using the stolen information, the suspects set up a website and email account that appeared to belong to Victim 1 and started contacting vendors to place orders.

Between Sept. 1 and Sept. 14 of 2010 they ordered 600 external hard drives, 13 projectors and 450 2-gigabyte computer memory chips from three other companies.

Some of the merchandise was shipped to addresses in Memphis and Talladega, Ala., where it was reshipped overseas. The rest was shipped to an address Miller controlled in McKeesport and reshipped overseas.

When Miller had trouble reshipping 400 external hard drives, he started selling them on Craigslist and wired the proceeds to a conspirator in Nigeria, prosecutors say.

Brian Bowling is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 412-325-4301 or bbowling@tribweb.com.