CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A South Charleston man posing to be a millionaire real estate personality is in jail after scamming people out of money with fraudulent investment schemes.

Theodore “Teddy” Miller (WVDCR)

Theodore “Teddy” Miller, 34, also known as, “The Wolf of West Virginia,” pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud Wednesday.

Miller admitted to defrauding more than 170 people through a pair of real estate investment schemes between the spring of 2022 and September of 2024. The schemes caused losses of between $395,000 and $434,501. One of the schemes solicited direct investments to develop modern residential duplexes and a dry-storage lot on Charleston’s Bigley Avenue. The second scheme was a pooled real estate vehicle called “Bear Lute.”

With each case, Miller made a multitude of misrepresentations to his investors. Miller promised returns on investments and the fact that the investments were secured by real property and the investments could be withdrawn.

As part of the guilty pleas, Miller admitted to the fact that he never owned the actual property, there were no returns on investments, and he used the money to pay unrelated expenses such as debts and other obligations.

Also as part of the guilty pleas, Miller admitted to not being a millionaire, and admitted to having poor credit and delinquent property taxes.

One of Miller’s victims wired him $20,000 from California for the storage lot project. Another victim wired him $2,500 from Texas for Bear Lute.

According to court documents, the funds were deposited by Miller into back accounts for several entities that he solely owned and operated, which included Bear Industries LLC. Prosecutors say Bear Industries served as an umbrella entity for the related business.

Miller’s mother, Deanna Drumm, 61, of Charleston, was the vice president of operations for Bear Industries. Miller directed her to handle day-to-day operations for the Bear entities from June 2021 to August of 2024 while he lived outside of the country. This included transferring funds and managing the finances.

Drumm pleaded guilty last November to aiding and abetting the sale and offer of unregistered securities. She is scheduled to be sentenced on May 29.

The FBI arrested Miller in August when he returned to the United States. He admitted to telling his wife, who is originally from Peru, to report his phone as stolen to make it inaccessible to law enforcement. He also told her to hide a backpack, which contained his laptop computer full of documents relating to Bear Lute and the investments. This call was made during a recorded jail phone call.

Miller is scheduled to be sentenced on July 2.

He faces a maximum of 40 years in prison, up to three years of supervised release, and a $500,000 fine.

Miller will also owe restitution of between $395,000 and $434,501.