Updated May 9, 2017, 11:55 a.m. PT: News has officially broken that former Dance Moms star Abby Lee Miller was sentenced to one year and one day in prison after being charged with 20 counts of fraud back in 2016. According to Deadline, Miller was sentenced by a federal judge in Pittsburgh on Tuesday. She will reportedly also have an additional two years of supervised release following her prison stay. USA Today further reported that Miller would have to pay a $40,000 fine in addition to the other sentencing provisions.
Included in Deadline‘s report was a note that Miller’s primary lawyer, Robert Ridge, told press outside the court that he and Miller respect the court’s decision. Additionally, Miller stated, “I feel relieved, I feel peaceful.” Lifetime has not commented at the time of this report.
In an interview conducted before her sentencing, Miller told People magazine that she felt she was in way over her head just before the fraud charges were brought. “I went from being a dance teacher from Pittsburgh who never ran a family business, who never did the books, who never wrote the checks out [because] my dad was there, he had my back […] So instead of telling anybody that I needed to borrow money or getting a really good attorney, I asked a friend, ‘Who do I go to for a bankruptcy attorney?’ I went on the down-low — nobody knew, not even my mother. I declared bankruptcy, and that was the worst thing I ever should have done.”
Original article:
Abby Lee Miller of Dance Moms fame is facing some pretty serious fraud charges regarding her alleged money laundering, but she won’t be going to jail any time soon — because the court just pushed back her sentencing date.
“Due to a scheduling conflict, government counsel is unavailable on that date,” court papers read, via Radar Online. “The court has advised that Friday, January 20, 2017 is an available date for the court to sentence the defendant.”
More: Leaving Dance Moms Wasn’t Easy For Maddie Ziegler, But it Was Necessary
Miller was originally scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 22, but the postponement gives defense counsel a little more time to gather their horses. She faces up to a $5 million fine and 20 months in prison for the 20 counts of fraud she was charged with back in Oct. 2015.
Not long ago, Miller joked about the very serious charges that she has been accused of.
“I’ve made a lot of mistakes, but probably not as many as all those bad moms,” she joked on the red carpet of the Bad Moms premiere over the summer.
She also justified her alleged crimes with the costs of being on a reality show.
More: Dance Moms‘ Future Could be in Trouble if Abby Lee Miller Goes to Prison
“I have a business on Santa Monica Boulevard west of the 405. I pay this exorbitant rent and it’s a set for a lifetime to shoot their television show, and it’s also my dance studio,” she said during the same red carpet interaction. “It’s a working dance studio. Just interviewing managers has been insane. Getting the right people to do the right jobs is what I need to do, and I need to do it myself.”
During the same interview, Miller said she’s a victim of her own self, because she is has been too trusting, and she will, “You know, deal with the consequences.”
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