For two years, court records show, Chanise Coyne cunningly wooed her clients — a metro Detroit couple who entrusted her with their young daughter’s modeling career.
Coyne had billed herself as a well-connected child modeling agent, the government says, and convinced a trusting mom and dad to give her $4.6 million in advance payments that were supposed to pay for their daughter’s participation in modeling events across the country.
Wire transfers. Venmo. PayPal. Zelle.
The couple used them all to get Coyne her money, records show.
But it was all a scam, the government says, and she admitted to it all.
What Coyne admitted in federal court
In U.S. District Court this week, 46-year-old Coyne of New Boston pleaded guilty to wire fraud, admitting she conned a local family into giving her $4.6 million for child modeling events that never existed. Rather, she admitted, she spent the money on herself − a big chunk of it on gambling − while pretending to spend it on airfare, hotels, clothing, seamstresses and production costs tied to the child’s modeling career.
“(Their) daughter did not participate in a single modeling event resulting from Coyne’s work,” states Coyne’s plea agreement.
Prosecutors also accused Coyne of spending some of her ill-gotten gains on money-laundering transactions involving the online sports gambling platform FanDuel.
The victims are not named in any court documents. The government identified the father only as Victim A in court records and stated that the victim and his wife suffered “substantial” financial losses, including retirement savings, because of Coyne’s scheme.
According to Coyne’s plea agreement, the husband had to postpone his retirement, and his wife had to take on additional work due to all the money they spent on Coyne.
“Coyne exploited a child’s dreams and ripped off a local family with her fake claims. But she will face real consequences,” U.S. Attorney Jerome Gorgon said in a statement following the Tuesday, May 19, plea hearing.
Coyne, who is free on bond, could not be reached for comment. Her attorney was not available for comment. Coyne faces up to 20 years in prison when she is sentenced on Sept. 1. Given her guilty plea and her cooperation, however, she will likely get a shorter sentence as criminal defendants who own up to their actions rather than go to trial are often treated more favorably at sentencing time.
Coyne’s guilty plea came four months after a federal grand jury indicted her on multiple charges tied to her child modeling scheme. According to the indictment, here is what landed her on the federal government’s radar:
Between April 2023 and April 2025, Coyne convinced a couple to give her money up front on multiple occasions, pretending that the funds were advance fees tied to modeling events. She claimed to be working with a specific talent agent, which wasn’t true, and created fake text messages, emails, and invoices relating to the supposed placement of their daughter in modeling events.
Coyne also impersonated a third party as part of her scheme, prosecutors said. And the parents were unwittingly buying it all, sending wire transfer after wire transfer, creating an electronic paper trail that the FBI would eventually dig up.
How the money moved
Here’s a glimpse at the money that flowed from the parents to the schemer:
∎ Nov. 7, 2023, $50,000 was wired to Coyne’s account. That same day, a second payment of $48,893 was wired to the same Coyne account.
∎Jan. 18, 2024, $96,807 was wired to Coyne.
∎ March 8, 2024 another $159,000 was wired to Coyne. Three days later, they wired her another $160,000.
∎ April 22, 2024, came another $160,000 wire transfer, followed by a May 8 wire transfer for $40,000.
“The defendant’s guilty plea is an acknowledgment that she deliberately calculated and executed a multi-million-dollar scheme that violated a family’s trust, and she will face the full measure of accountability for her actions,” Detroit’s FBI chief Jennifer Runyan said in a statement.
Coyne’s prior controversies
Coyne, meanwhile, is not new to controversy. According to social media and previous media reports, Coyne, who also ran her own photography business, created a stir in 2024 when she cancelled a child photo shoot with Santa due to a monkeypox rumor.
According to a Fox 2 report documenting the Santa fiasco, Coyne canceled the family’s photo shoot, claiming Santa had Mpox − but the Santa actor said that wasn’t true. In the end, Coyne refunded the family their money.
While the Santa story caused a ruckus on social media, some families stood by Coyne, including a mother of a child with cancer, who had hired Coyne for her family’s Christmas photos.
“Over the years, Chanise has been his photographer and always gave us the option for first visit to prevent exposure to germs with him being immunocompromised,” the mother wrote on Facebook a year ago. “For a cancer mom, I couldn’t be more thankful of her thoughtfulness and generosity.”
She added: “Chanise wears her heart on her sleeve. She has a charitable heart and always thinks of others before herself.”
Tresa Baldas:tbaldas@freepress.com
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: How Michigan couple spent $4.6M on kid’s modeling dream, but got scammed
Reporting by Tresa Baldas, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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