Former football player and BigLaw alumnus pose as former lawyers to get jobs
Criminal Justice
Former lawyer gets prison time after posing as BigLaw alum, former football player in quest for jobs
March 13, 2025, 9:00 am CDT
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Updated: An Ohio lawyer has been sentenced to 37 months in prison for Social Security fraud after using fake identities in a quest for law firm jobs.
Richard Louis Crosby III, 37, of Mason, Ohio, was sentenced Monday, according to Reuters and a March 10 press release. Crosby, 37, of Mason, Ohio, was sentenced Monday to 37 months in prison for Social Security fraud. He will also have to pay $171,000 to the defrauded firms. One California firm hired Crosby at an annual salary of $250,000 the month before his federal indictment.
Crosby pleaded guilty to three federal counts of Social Security fraud in July 2024. Federal prosecutors claimed that Crosby had used identifying details for his elderly father and girlfriend, as well as a deceased man. Crosby, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of Ohio, was indicted on theft charges by the state in June 2021 and in November 2021. Crosby applied at a second firm in June 2022.
The Supreme Court of Ohio’s directory still lists Crosby as “Resigned-Discipline Pending,” and an employee in the clerk’s office confirmed that he has not been disbarred by the Supreme Court of Ohio. However, he applied at a second firm in June 2022.
The Supreme Court of Ohio’s directory still lists Crosby as “Resigned-Discipline Pending,” and an employee in the clerk’s office confirmed that he has not been disbarred by the Supreme Court of Ohio.
He pleaded guilty in the Ohio theft cases in May 2023 and was sentenced to probation the next month.
Updated on March 14 to note that while the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Ohio refers to him as disbarred, the Supreme Court Of Ohio Attorney Directory refers to him as resigned with discipline pending.
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