A Fairfax businesswoman will spend four and a half years in prison for three fraud schemes, including the theft of more than $600,000 from the campaign of Virginia's Senate minority leader.
Lynn Miller, also known as Linda Wallis, was sentenced Friday and ordered to pay $1.4 million in restitution.
Miller pleaded guilty in October 2015 to her role in three fraud schemes that totaled over $1.4 million in losses. Prosecutors say the first scheme involved Miller and a co-conspirator creating two fraudulent companies; the two acquired more than $360,000 using fraudulent wire transfers and checks.
Prosecutors say Miller, a former treasurer for Virginia Senate Democratic Leader Dick Saslaw (D-Fairfax), then issued 73 fraudulent checks from Saslaw's campaign account without the senator's knowledge. The money, prosecutors say, was redirected into accounts she controlled.
Prosecutors also said Miller created an organization called the Community College Consortium on Autism and Intellectual Disabilities in 2010, which collected money from community colleges and from a Bulgarian businessman.
Miller used some of the money the organization collected to pay her mortgage and personal and food expenses, prosecutors said.
The federal prosecutors did not specify what work the organization conducted, but said it "purported" to be a non-profit. The I-Team's review with state officials in Virginia found no formal filings by the Community College Consortium on Autism and Intellectual Disabilities to be a non-profit.
