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The Fake Princess: Pleads
Guilty to Fraud
Pakistan Times Special
Report
A NEW YORK woman who posed in
high-societ y
circles as a Saudi princess pleaded guilty on Wednesday to grand larceny and
insurance fraud and was ordered to a mental hospital.
Antoinette Millard, 42, used a special credit card to spend nearly $1
million during a three-month shopping spree. She also bilked an insurance
company of more than a quarter of a million dollars.
As part of her plea deal, Millard will spend one year at an in-patient
psychiatric facility where she will receive intensive psychiatric treatment.
"If you woefully fail to abide by the treatment, you'll get a year in jail,"
Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Renee White told Millard.
At high-society events with celebrities and socialites, Millard introduced
herself as "Princess Antoinette" and said she was also a former Victoria's
Secret model.
In reality, Millard was a former vice president of the investment banking
firm of Brown Brothers Harriman.
She scammed Chubb Insurance Co. in 2003, claiming $262,000 worth of jewelry
she was carrying was stolen when she was mugged on Madison Avenue in New
York City.
She also spent $950,000 using a no-limit "Centurion" card sent to her by
American Express.
American Express sued her for the money, but she countersued saying she was
mentally incompetent when she opened the account and the company should have
known it.
Prosecutors said the credit card issue had been resolved.
After her arrest, she blamed her predicament on traumatic events in her life
including being sexually harassed at work, and witnessing "people jumping
out of the Twin Towers" while on her way to work on Sept. 11, 2001.●
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