Brian Keith Miller Arrested for Wire Fraud, Money Laundering, and False Income Tax Returns

KNOXVILLE—Brian Keith Miller of Maryville, Tennessee, appeared before the Honorable C. Clifford Shirley, Jr., U.S. Magistrate Judge, in U.S. District Court in Knoxville, on March 26, 2012, subsequent to his arrest by agents of the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation Division and Federal Bureau of Investigation on charges involving wire fraud, money laundering, and filing false federal income tax returns. Miller was released on bond following his initial appearance.

The arrest stems from a March 20, 2012 indictment that charges that from April 2007 through March 2010 Miller, a former registered securities broker, executed a Ponzi scheme to defraud investors by making fraudulent misrepresentations concerning purported investment opportunities that Miller offered local victims. Rather than investing the victims’ funds as promised, the indictment charges that Miller misappropriated investment funds to his own use and used a portion of the victims’ funds to pay other victims to lull them into believing that they were receiving payments on their investments. The indictment also charges that Miller knowingly engaged in monetary transactions greater than $10,000 with the proceeds of the fraud scheme and filed false federal income tax returns for 2007 and 2008.

Members of the public are reminded that these are only charges, and that every person is presumed innocent until his or her guilt has been proven beyond a reasonable doubt.