Cleveland Heights Woman Gets 15 Years for $360K ID Theft

STEVEN M. DETTELBACH, the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, announced that Darnell Nash, 29, from Cleveland Heights, was sentenced to nearly 15 years in prison for leading a widespread identity-theft scheme.

Nash, who faced 175 months in prison and a $361,341 restitution order, is the final defendant to be sentenced in this case. Her sentence follows those of Kennard Berts, 21, Dwayne Buchanan Jr., 22, and Justin Davis, 26, all of whom were also handed substantial prison terms earlier this year.

DETTELBACH emphasized that the crime ring had stolen individuals’ identities to amass hundreds of thousands of dollars through unemployment insurance fraud. JAMES VANDERBERG, Special Agent-in-Charge of the U.S. Department of Labor Office of Inspector General, reinforced that combating unemployment insurance fraud remains a priority, with continued efforts to investigate and hold accountable those who obtain benefits they are not entitled to.

According to court documents, the defendants executed a “fictitious employer” scheme between March 2012 and January 2013. They submitted false paperwork to various state unemployment-insurance offices, registering fictitious employers and reporting non-existent earnings for these employees. The fraud involved using actual individuals’ personal identifying information, obtained through fraudulent means such as flyers offering assistance vouchers in urban areas.

The investigation was conducted by the Department of Labor’s Office of Inspector General, the U.S. Secret Service, the United States Postal Inspector, and the Social Security Administration’s Office of Inspector General. The Cleveland Heights Police Department also played a role in the investigation.