Disbarred Ohio attorney finagles $250K job offer: DOJ

(WKBN) — A disbarred attorney from Mason, Ohio is facing federal charges after investigators say he nearly landed a $250,000 salary job at a California law firm.

Richard Louis Crosby, III, 37, pleaded guilty earlier this month to three counts of social security number fraud. His plea agreement includes a sentence recommendation of 37 months in prison.

Investigators say he used false identities to get jobs with at least seven law firms. At times he would use his father’s information, his girlfriend’s or that of a dead man and others. He even told one law firm that he was a University of Michigan football player and ex-Marine.

He was briefly employed at a law firm in Washington, D.C., and in June 2022 at a law firm in Los Angeles where he worked for three months at a salary of $150,000 under an alias name and email, federal investigators said.

After that, investigators say Crosby jumped to Florida where he got a job at a law firm using his girlfriend’s information and at a salary of $185,000 with a $5,000 signing bonus, but in April 2023, the firm received an inquiry from an investigator with the Clermont County Child Support Enforcement Office, making the firm aware of Crosby’s true identity. He was subsequently fired.

From July 2023 to September 20203, Crosby again tried to fraudulently get employment at firms in California, Florida and Michigan but hiring managers became suspicious of his identity.

Then in September 2023, one month prior to his arrest, Crosby used a different alias to apply for a job at another law firm in California where he was hired at a salary of $250,000, using the social security information from a dead man in North Carolina, investigators said.

Crosby was arrested by federal agents in October 2023. As part of his guilty plea, Crosby has agreed to pay nearly $171,000 in restitution to law firms he defrauded.

If you have information related to Crosby’s conduct, please contact the Social Security OIG tip line at 1-800-269-0271.

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