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Man steals $3.5 million from city of Miami Beach to buy NFL tickets, FBI says

A Syracuse, New York, man has been charged with hacking the city of Miami Beach’s SunTrust bank account to buy $3.5 million worth of NFL tickets, the FBI announced Friday.

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David J. Miller, 44, is accused of setting up an account with an online reseller of sporting tickets and using it to buy 157 seat licenses, and season and individual tickets, with money from the city’s general depository account over the course of several months.

According to court documents, Miller somehow obtained the city’s SunTrust bank account number and set up the ticket-selling account under the name of an Illinois man, identified as “R.W.”

Miller was able to obtain a photo of R.W.’s driver’s license, apparently when he tried to purchase NFL tickets from the suspect at a previous date, investigators said.

R.W. was not involved in the alleged theft from Miami Beach's bank account, investigators said.

The withdrawals from the Miami Beach account started on July 29 with a $7,511 transaction, court documents said.

Five more transactions took place in August; 12 in September; and 39 in October, officials said.

One transaction, on Oct. 17, totaled $220,000, investigators said.

City officials contacted the FBI on Dec. 20, after discovering “several million dollars in unauthorized ACH transfers,” a federal criminal complaint said.

After several months of investigation, agents were able to track the transactions to Miller, who was charged Wednesday with bank fraud and aggravated identity theft, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a media release.

According to investigators, Miller was already in custody in Onondaga County, New York, on state identity theft charges.

Along with the NFL ticket purchases, Miller was also accused of using some of the funds from Miami Beach to pay for personal expenses and make bank transfers to family members, court documents said.