The California law isn't against selling miles. It's against "using any ticket in violation of its terms of carriage" or similar language. So, if anyone is at risk under this law, it would be whoever bought the miles and tried to use the award ticket. Since the seller isn't using a ticket, he or she is not (under this statute) performing an illegal act.

[I am not a lawyer. As legal advice, this is worth no more than you paid for it, perhaps less.]

I am not aware of anyone being charged under this law for using an award ticket purchased in violation of an airline's FF program policy, but I haven't looked very hard. If anyone knows of a case (not "my brother-in-law had this waitress at a diner who said the person who delivers their ketchup has another customer who ...," but REALLY knows) I'd like to hear about it.

If you really don't care about what Delta might do to your account, I'd say the other risks are negligible.

However, a long discussion of this here may not be a good idea. Randy Petersen, who provides us with this site as a free service, depends on the airlines' good will for his livelihood. Anything that could be interpreted as encouraging people to violate airline rules will not endear him to them.

Personally, I'd do one of two things:

(1) Ask Delta what their list of charities is and pick the one I like most.

(2) Top up the account to 40,000 miles by sending someone flowers, and give a 40K award to my favorite niece/nephew/etc.