Woman Allegedly Scammed Family Out of $4.6M, Gambled Away Money in Child Modeling Fraud Scheme

A Michigan woman is accused of scamming a family out of more than $4.6 million in a scheme in which she pretended to help place their daughter in different modeling events, according to federal prosecutors.

The young girl’s family paid Chanise Coyne millions for what they believed were “expenses relating to those events,” reads an indictment charging Coyne with seven counts of wire fraud and five counts of money laundering.

To carry out the scheme, Coyne, 46, created fake records that appeared to be tied to modeling events from across the U.S. and “impersonated a third party” in support of the scam, according to prosecutors.

Instead of placing the family’s daughter in modeling events, Coyne used the family’s money for gambling, including for payments made to the online gambling platform FanDuel, prosecutors said.

Coyne, who lives in New Boston, was arrested by FBI agents on Thursday, February 26, in connection with the alleged scheme, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan said in a news release issued that day.

“This defendant allegedly took advantage of a family’s love for their daughter, stole their nest egg, and then gambled it away,” U.S. Attorney Jerome F. Gorgon said in a statement.

Coyne is represented by attorney John D. Dakmak, who did not immediately respond to Us Weekly’s request for comment on Friday, February 27.

At her February 26 arraignment, Coyne pleaded not guilty to the charges she is facing, court records show.

Coyne’s alleged child modeling fraud scheme began from at least April 2023 and lasted for about two years, until April 2025, according to the indictment.

“The purpose of the scheme to defraud was for Coyne to obtain money and enrich herself by, among other things, materially false and fraudulent representations to Victim A and his family members regarding Coyne’s purported work relating to the placement of Victim A’s daughter in modeling events,” the indictment states.

Coyne “fraudulently misappropriated” almost all of the more than $4.6 million that she was paid in the alleged scheme, according to prosecutors.

While carrying out the scam, she impersonated someone who she pretended to communicate with for purported child modeling event coordination, the indictment says.

Ultimately, prosecutors wrote in the filing that “Victim A’s daughter did not participate in a single modeling event resulting from Coyne’s work.”

The indictment lists multiple wire transfers the man had sent Coyne. The largest wire transfer mentioned in the filing was a transfer of $160,000 to Coyne in March 2024.

That same month, Coyne made five separate payments of $20,000 to FanDuel from her debit card, according to the indictment.

The indictment notes that the money came from “unlawful activity.”

“Those who think they can scam Michigan families out of their hard-earned money need to think again,” Jennifer Runyan, the special agent-in-charge of the FBI’s Detroit Field Office, said in a statement. “The FBI will identify you, investigate you, and arrest you.”

Coyne was released from federal custody on a $10,000 unsecured bond on February 26, according to court records.