Ohio unemployment claims worker charged with taking bribes, OKing $800K in fraudulent benefits

A former customer COLUMBUS — service representative with Ohio’s unemployment system has been indicted on charges that she was paid to remove fraud flags from more than 40 people’s unemployment claims, allowing them to collect nearly $800,000, according to the state inspector general’s office.

Donesha Shepard, 30, of Hamilton County, is one of four people charged in connection with the scheme, which took place in mid-2021, according to court records and a report from the inspector general’s office.

Shepard, while working intermittently for the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, agreed for a fee to remove fraud holds or denial-of-benefit designations on 41 people’s pandemic unemployment benefits, according to the inspector general’s report.

Shepard found new clients by advertising via word of mouth and Facebook posts, where she went by the name “Bodacious Booder,” according to the IG’s report. The people who paid Shepard to approve them for unemployment benefits either lived near her, were related to her, were prison inmates who made digital payments to Shepard, or contacted her by phone calls and text messages, the report stated.

Three others received the money and paid it to Shepard, according to WXIX-TV.

In one case, Shepard arranged in August 2021 for more than $28,000 to be paid to the son and sister of a Cincinnati woman, according to the report. The money was deposited in the woman’s bank account, and evidence showed the woman and Shepard were each in Las Vegas in March of 2022 to celebrate their birthdays.

Shepard worked for OD JFS between March of 2021 and the following August, when she was terminated. The illicit claims approvals started in June 2021, according to the IG’s report.

On Feb. 8, a Hamilton County grand jury indicted Shepard and the other three on charges of theft, telecommunications fraud and bribery. Shepard was also charged with tampering with records.

Shepard admitted to investigators with the IG’s office last November that she was responsible for the improper actions.

“I knew I was doing the wrong thing,” Shepard said, according to the report. “But, like I said, I was helping people and I could help me on the back end.”