A longtime con man will serve 17 years in federal prison in a real estate scheme — once he gets out of state prison for running yet another scheme.
Robert Miller has amassed a remarkable criminal resume: He has been arrested 57 times and convicted 17 times, on charges from impersonating a lawyer to operating a boat while intoxicated. The 54-year-old has spent nearly 5,000 days in jail.
On Wednesday, federal Judge Richard Leon sentenced the smooth-talking Miller to prison for a real estate swindle in the Washington area that took in almost $500,000 from its victims. Prosecutors had sought 130 years in jail, citing Miller’s long career as a con man.
“Like the calculation of pi,” Assistant U.S. Attorney John Griffith wrote in a prosecutor’s memo, “Miller’s criminal history has been endless.”
Miller’s real estate scheme took in hundreds of poor people with bad credit. Between 2003 and 2004, he clipped glossy advertisements from other real estate companies, advertised them as his own and promised his victims a chance to own their dream homes with only a few dollars.
He then brought in dozens of other investors in a “hard cash money” pool, “guaranteeing” them profits between 15 and 100 percent.
But Miller spent the money on Miller, prosecutors showed at trial: Miller rented a glass-and-steel office near the White House and hired on 40 staffers. He drove a flashy sports car and dressed in expensive clothes.
While he was awaiting trial on the real estate scheme, Miller was convicted of fraud in Maryland and sentenced to 12 years in prison. He still has at least four years to serve on that sentence, then his federal term begins.
That didn’t slow him down, though, prosecutors alleged: “In just the past year, while incarcerated, he has attempted to obtain millions of dollars in credit lines through false pretenses, opened his own retail Web site and engaged in other unauthorized practices,” Griffith wrote.
“Enough,” the prosecutor said.
