Dance Monsters…I mean, Dance Moms star, Abby Lee Miller, has found herself in some trouble with the law and is doing a little tap dancing to keep herself out of jail. The 49-year-old reality show personality plead guilty to bankruptcy fraud and failing to report bringing thousands of Australian dollars into the United States.
Back in October, a federal grand jury indicted Abby on 20 counts, including bankruptcy fraud, concealment of bankruptcy assets, and false bankruptcy declarations. Abby attempted to conceal $775,000 in earnings from Abby’s Ultimate Dance Competition and other projects. The indictment claimed that:
Miller knowingly concealed … a substantial amount of business income which she earned from her appearances as a featured performer on the reality television program ‘Dance Moms,’ and related spin-off TV programs, as well as income she earned from Masterclass dance events and online merchandise sales from Abby Lee Dance Company.com.
The indictment also included the discovery of emails from 2013 sent from Abby to her accountant and a joint venture partner with the subject line “LETS MAKE MONEY AND KEEP ME OUT OF JAIL,” and instructing them to “not raise any red flags” and “DON’T PUT CASH IN THE BANK!!!”
After the indictment, Abby was accused of having her employees help her smuggle $120,000 from Australia into the US back in August of 2014. Her cronies divvied up the dough, placed it into separate plastic bags and carried them in their luggage. The law states that you need to report if you’re bringing more than $10,000 of a foreign currency into the U.S. All I bring into the States from foreign countries is duty-free booze.
Abby’s attorney, Robert Ridge, told PEOPLE, “Throughout this case, Ms. Miller has taken both the allegations and the proceedings very seriously. This has been a challenging time for Ms. Miller. She appreciates the words of encouragement and support from around the world.”
Abby is scheduled to face sentencing on the charges on October 11. She could face up to 2 and a half years in prison. Just in case she gets put away for a while, Abby got on the hotline with her travel agent and arranged for pre-sentencing jaunts with her dance company to locales including Las Vegas, Mexico and the Hamptons – 10 trips in all. But, come on, we all know how this is going to turn out. She’ll most likely get a slap on the wrist, especially because her attorney pointed out that her creditors didn’t suffer any losses. She will most likely get probation or waltz away with a short, 6-month stint behind bars.
This makes me cranky. The woman has every intention of committing fraud. Bad intentions should be punished, right? And even if she does end up in the pokey, I’m sure the experience will be Martha Stewart-esque. You know if it was you or me, we’d be living an Orange is the New Black existence. I kind of hope they throw the book at her, and not only because her show is terrible.
Photo credit: WENN.com
I’ve watched the show for about 5 minutes and was horrified. I’m pretty sure she’s a terrible, greedy person. Throw the book, yeah.
Watched an episode when it first came out and it truly made me queasy. Wish this would take it off the air, but she seems the type that benefits from being notorious.
Oh she is. 88% is just her being absolutely terrible to her dancers, their moms, other rival studios, and the using the ensuing conflict to pit everyone against each other. The fans just lap it up
Greedy tacky thing should be punished by fine. Enough to make her really bankrupt.
A loudmouthed, greedy shrew. Why parents let this sickening bully anywhere near their daughters is beyond me.
Because the shrew has a t.v show. Some of those moms are are just as bad.
I agree. I’ve watched it (a guilty pleasure for sure) and the mothers are just as bad or worse. I honestly was appalled by their behavior for supposedly adult women.
Because she has a show. The original girls from the show had little to zero contact with her. And in the beginning they weren’t even going to feature Miller as much but of course she brought in the ratings.
I feel zero sympathy for anyone who joined the show after the girls who were dancing there already. Honeslty she wasn’t worse than any coach I had in the first two seasons. After the show blew up she just got cruel and eventually I had to stop watching.
She is very burnt orange in that first photo
She looks like a rotisserie chicken that someone left roasting a tad too long.
I love when people who document their lives and lifestyles on TV think they can hide information about their finances. How can anyone be so stupid? It boggles my mind.
I’m always amazed at that too. Like the guy who won the first Survivor, with its highly publicized prize money, and then neglected to pay taxes on it.
Her bankruptcy judge happened to be watching tv when he happened to come across her show and realized she had lied about her income.I guess these idiots like guy from Survivor or couple from Real Housewives don’t think IRS agents,judges,etc watch tv.SMH
Honestly, you have to be incredibly shady to get charged with bankruptcy fraud. My husband does work on behalf of the trustee for bk cases and he finds hidden assets ALL THE TIME. It’s pretty difficult to prove deliberate fraud, so 99% of the time they just add the discovered assets to case and move on. Whatever this woman did must have been beyond the pale to get charged.
I don’t even understand how this person operates a dance studio. I don’t watch the show, though I’ve caught a few clips – does she actually dance herself? I was a RAD trained dancer with a very strict director, but even still. This woman seems off her rocker!
I guess I don’t really “get” the competition dance thing at all.
She has assistants who do a big chunk of the work, and then I think her specialty is one on one training, and the group numbers. She might have danced when she was younger, I’m not sure. She is off her rocker though
Watched this once or twice to my ever lasting shame. It was like watching child abuse on TV. And seeing those moms allow this bully to scream, humiliate & verbally abuse their children was even worse in some ways. They were trying to justify, minimize & feebly stand up to her – then they’d cattily turn on each other and fight amongst themselves. Could never see any real joy on most of the girls’ faces. Hope this & toddlers & tiaras are both cancelled.
I FULLY AGREE! I felt so uncomfortable with the way the children were treated.
I feel like the headline should be:
“Terrible Person taught doing Terrible things”
I actually liked the original show when it first came out, and, after watching it and getting to know the people involved, thought that Abby was misunderstood.
Several years later, I tried to watch it again and had a much different reaction. I think Abby Lee is a self-centered shrew who gave up on her students and cares about no one but herself. I wouldn’t watch her antics if someone paid me to. Also, her tongue was darting out all the time like a lizard’s…what’s up with that.
My sister is in love with this show (I try to do my part, by deleting it from the DVR before she gets a chance to watch it), and at all the competitions they usually always win in their category. I was just wondering how much of that is the girls’ real talent, and how much is just the fact that they’re on a tv show?
This is gonna sound so so so f*cking awful but at quick glance without seeing the captioned I really said WHAAAA wtf did Mindy Kaling do to her face?!? JESUS CHRIST IM IN TEARS LAUGHING AT MYSELF
This Lady Looks Burnished Orange
Enjoy jail, heifer.
This whole Abby thing has been so weird to watch over the years because I’ve met the woman on several occasions lol
I’m from Pittsburgh and used to compete against her studio (Ch. 10 DMP). Over the years she has had some extraordinary dancers, especially in the 90s…Back then the parents weren’t really involved the way they are now and she treated her dancers like her own children. They were seriously amazing dancers, quite a bit better than the kids now actually. But she was more brutal back then too. Ohh the stories I could tell….
Jessie, could you share some stories? I’d be so interested to know!!!
The one that always comes to mind is when I was probably thirteen. I was standing in a hallway with a bunch of other dancers and her prized dancer (tons of titles, gorgeous lines and expression, etc – a lot like Maddie but 15 or 16 at the time) came off the stage and collapsed on the floor in the hallway screaming and crying. She had horrible rheumatoid arthritis in her back and feet and every time she danced she was in crazy pain. I just remember Abby picking her up and telling her to walk it off like it was no big deal. It still makes me sick when I think about it…
Whoa Jessie, but where was the parent in all that? If my child were in incredible pain from an activity I would not allow them to be pushed in that activity (and would only keep them in it at all if they absolutely insisted)
Ugh these greedy lowlifes like this make me stabby. She hid her cash because she thought that if you don’t like the rules, you don’t have to abide by them. Throw her in the clink and teach her orange ass a lesson.
Oh Whaaa!!!! She’s not going to be able to afford all the tanning and bronzer anymore. Good for everyone else.
Karma’s a bitch. Why anyone enjoys watching someone verbally abuse children is beyond me. When did that become entertainment? Hopefully, her show will be cancelled due to all of this.
Jesus CHRIST that sun damage. Can you imagine what she must look like in those dermatological photos that show invisible sun damage when that much is visible to the naked eye? She’s seriously going to get skin cancer at some point, even if that’s a bottle tan (and it’s a hideous tan no matter the source).