Hamptons Tycoon’s Lavish Lifestyle Masked $34M Debt Burden

The high-pro­file New York real estate devel­op­er Bran­don Miller, who took his own life last month, was in far worse finan­cial straits than ini­tial­ly report­ed, accord­ing to a new investigation.

Staggering Debt Revealed

Miller, 43, was near­ly $34 mil­lion in debt, with just $8,000 in his bank account at the time of his death, The­Re­alDeal reports. This is a far cry from the lav­ish Hamp­tons lifestyle he and his influ­encer wife Can­dace had por­trayed on social media.

Extravagant Lifestyle Funded by Debt

Through Can­dace’s now-defunct lifestyle blog Mama + Tata, the Millers had pre­sent­ed an image of an idyl­lic upper-class fam­i­ly life. In real­i­ty, they were liv­ing well beyond their means, heav­i­ly over­lever­aged with mil­lions in secret debt.

Buried in Loans and Debts

Miller’s debt includ­ed $11.5 mil­lion in mort­gages on the fam­i­ly’s Wal­ter Mill estate, now on the mar­ket for $15.5 mil­lion, as well as a stag­ger­ing $11.3 mil­lion unse­cured loan from BMO Bank and $6.1 mil­lion owed to a pre­vi­ous busi­ness partner.

Tragic Ending

Miller was found unre­spon­sive in his car in the garage of the fam­i­ly’s Hamp­tons home and died a few days lat­er at a local hos­pi­tal. At the time, it was report­ed he had been $17 mil­lion in debt, half of what was ulti­mate­ly revealed.