Brandon Miller debt: Candice Miller's wealthy real estate mogul husband 'owed $17 million' before he died by suicide in garage of $8M home

Real estate mogul Brandon Miller was reportedly $17million in debt when he died by suicide earlier this month.

The 43-year-old killed himself by inhaling exhaust fumes in the garage of $8million home while his influencer wife, Candice Miller, was touring Europe with their two daughters, DailyMail.com exclusively revealed last week.

It has since been reported that Miller was heavily in the red, as colleagues say he and his wife were trying to live beyond their means and flaunt their wealth in the Hamptons.

'It's no longer keeping up with the Joneses. It's keeping up with the Bezoses, but no one can compete,' another Hamptons socialite told the New York Post.

'There's a whole kind of rich now that never existed before,' the source added, explaining: 'There are probably 10 or 20 people in the Hamptons who qualify as billionaires. But you can be sure they're not the ones sharing their lives on Instagram.'

Sources told the Post that Brandon borrowed roughly $17million from friends, apparently to buy a downtown Manhattan building.

But the building was sold to someone else, and the real estate mogul was forced to tell investors he used the money on something else.'

At least one wealthy Hamptons residents now speculates that the debt may have cost Miller his life.

'Brandon clearly, he thought he was going to jail for embezzlement and he decided this was his way out,' a source told The Post.

Brandon had waited until his family had left town for a weeks-long luxury vacation before getting into his car and running the engine until it filled their garage with toxic gas. 

The build-up triggered a carbon monoxide alarm which alerted the fire department in Southampton, New York, and sent a notification to Candice, the founder of the lifestyle blog Mama & Tata, DailyMail.com previously reported.

But the socialite pal of Ivanka Trump missed the July 1 warning because she was asleep at her $2,000 per night hotel in Italy's ultra-chic Amalfi coast, a friend told DailyMail.com.

She awoke to learn her husband had been found unconscious at their mansion in Water Mill, an exclusive Hamptons enclave.

DailyMail.com understands that a wealthy friend arranged for shaken Candice, 42, and their two girls to fly back to the US on a private jet.

They arrived in time to say their final goodbyes before Miller was taken off life support at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital and declared dead on July 3, according to a well-placed source.

'They are amazing, sweet girls who loved their dad so much. This is absolutely devastating for all of them,' the source added.

The Town of Southampton Police Department refused to share details of Miller's suspected suicide but a law enforcement source confirmed the cause of death was asphyxiation.

Friends have also said the once-gregarious Miller had battled depression and put on weight in recent months as he faced mounting legal problems and struggled to maintain his family's gilded lifestyle.

He and Candice spent weekends on Long Island and the bulk of their time at a $47,000-per-month rental on Park Avenue in New York City's Upper East side.

The couple's opulent lifestyle, awash with designer clothes, decadent cocktail parties and costly vacations, was showcased on Candice's painstakingly choreographed social media pages.

She and her sister Jenna Crespi created Mama & Tata, Candice (the mama) combining forces with Jenna (tata, the aunt) to 'impart our insights on how to be a great mom while maintaining beauty, style and glamour in everyday life.'

'Candice spent money like water. She would get an $800 facial once a week, she had a private chef. She spent thousands on flowers for each of her dinner parties,' the source added.

'Her wardrobe was all Miu Miu, Prada, and shoes and bags from The Row. She spent another thousand every month on her Tracy Anderson membership and private training sessions.

'Everything she did was captured by a professional photographer to project this perfect lifestyle. All of that costs an absolute fortune.'

But behind the scenes, Ivy league graduate Miller had become embroiled in multiple lawsuits posing questions about his honesty and the true state of his finances.

His dad Michael Miller founded Real Estate Equities Corporation in 1978, developing more than 20 million square feet of malls, plazas and luxury condos throughout the US and accumulating a reported personal wealth of $74million.

But he also bequeathed his son a huge debt when a former business associate named Donald Jaffe filed a lawsuit in New York following Michael's 2016 death claiming he was owed $5.9million in unpaid loans.

The 2019 complaint claimed the Millers borrowed funds for a building project in Tribeca where Brandon and Candice would later occupy a swank penthouse that became the backdrop for many of her glitzy Instagram posts.

The money also covered a mortgage on Brandon's five-bed waterfront spread in Water Mill but he 'flatly denied' any knowledge of the pact and insisted his father had directed a longtime employee, Christine Frangipane, to forge his signature.

When Miller tried to get the case tossed, New York Supreme Court Judge Andrew Borrok wondered why he had been paying Joffe back in installments for the previous four years if the loans were fraudulent.

'It is more than a little bit curious that Ms. Frangipane remains in Brandon's employ', he further noted, prior to the case being settled in 2022.

That same year TD Bank sued Miller and his mom Barbara, claiming they made a series of fraudulent transfers to prevent the bank from collecting on a $2.1million debt that Michael owed on an outstanding mortgage.

Further suits cast doubt on whether Miller could afford the jet-set lifestyle carefully curated for his wife's online followers.

Interior Marketing Group sued Miller in April for $102,730 for failing to pay for 'high-end living, dining and bedroom furniture and various accessories.'

The disputed inventory included 'dining and family room fixtures, area rugs, table lamps, bedroom desks and chairs, credenzas, bedframes [sic], pillows, draperies and sheers and artwork.'

He had also 'refused to return' $64,000 worth of items that were used to furnish the Park Avenue apartment, the filing claimed.

Additionally, Miller was being sued in the Hamptons for $55,205 for unpaid bills dating back to 2022 by the Lighthouse Marina, where he moored his boat, MillerTime.

Some now speculate that Miller may have been pressured by his influencer wife to spend beyond their means.

'Candice made it harder for Brandon because she was flaunting so much on social media,' an unidentified businessman told the Post.

'But they are by no means the only ones.

'There's a lot of people renting big houses or going into debt to throw parties in an effort to get into the really rich circles with billionaires like Michael Rubin and Michael Loeb, and the Millers were like that. They weren't quite top-tier.' 

Pals have previously told DailyMail.com they sensed tension in the Millers' 15-year marriage as fitness fanatic Candice began to post more images without her husband.

He was no longer photographed at her side at glittering social events where she rubbed shoulders with the likes of Wendy Deng, Rupert Murdoch's ex-wife, and Eve Jobs, daughter of Apple founder Steve Jobs.

This past Father's Day she paid tribute to her own father but made no mention of Brandon. He appeared stressed, tense and visibly heavier, friends say.

Rumors swirled of fresh legal woes and an impending foreclosure on the couple's Long Island property without ever being substantiated.

Candice and the girls set off this summer for Europe without him, spending around two weeks visiting Majorca in Spain's Balearic Islands, where the trio stayed at the five-star La Residencia hotel.

They moved on to Italy's glamorous yachting hub, Capri, where the trip was cut tragically short by news of her husband's suspected suicide.

'She had posted something saying how excited she was about going on a girls' trip for the first time since she got married,' the source said.

'That struck people as strange because Brandon had gone along on all these trips in the past. Then she suddenly stopped posting all together.'

Candice deleted her @mamaandtata Instagram page before Miller's death hit the news. She's not been back online and has not commented about it publicly.

Friends say she is being comforted by her family away from the glare of social media.

'It's a tragedy. She's been completely silent. Everyone is just wishing her and the girls the best,' our source added.

If you or anyone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts, please call the Suicide Prevention hotline on 988 - or 1-800-273-8255 - or go to SuicidePreventionLifeline.org