A disbarred Cincinnati lawyer was arrested on Thursday for allegedly using an alias and phony credentials to get high-paying jobs at law firms in Washington DC and Florida.
The criminal complaint, filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of Ohio on Oct. 24, accuses Richard L. Crosby III of wire fraud, social security number fraud, and aggravated identity theft.
Crosby resigned from the practice of law while facing disciplinary proceedings in 2021 and was subsequently indicted, twice, in Hamilton County, Ohio.
The first indictment alleged that he stole client funds while acting as an attorney. The second charged him with theft and telecommunications fraud.
In December 2021, he was disbarred by US District Court for the Southern District of Ohio. He pleaded guilty to the Hamilton County charges in May 2023 and was sentenced to probation.
In the midst of his legal and professional troubles in Ohio, Crosby allegedly posed as Richard Coleman Williams to apply for three different law jobs, falsely claiming to be licensed in New York and the District of Columbia.
Crosby, while pretending to be Williams, was briefly employed by a firm in DC in June 2021.
Then in September 2022—after he was disbarred and arrested in Hamilton County—he was accused of again using his alias to get a job at a law firm in Miami. The firm eventually extended him an offer with a starting salary of $185,000 a year.
The complaint says he was able to dupe the firm using a former romantic partner’s social security and passport numbers.
Between October 2022 and March 2023 the firm paid him around $83,000. The firm had also paid a recruiter $50,000 for referring him, the complaint says.
The firm allegedly learned of his true identity and fired him when it received an inquiry from an investigator with the Clermont County, Ohio Child Support Enforcement office.
Crosby, still posing as Williams, then allegedly applied for yet another law firm job in Coral Gables, Florida.
Although the second Florida law firm initially offered him a job with a starting salary of $195,000, the firm told authorities that it figured out that he was using a false identity before actually taking him on.
Crosby ran for Congress, seeking to represent Ohio’s Second Congressional District as a Democrat in 2018, but never appeared on the ballot.
Crosby, who is making his initial appearance in federal court in Cincinnati this afternoon, didn’t immediately respond to a voicemail seeking comment.
Counsel for Crosby hasn’t entered an appearance in the matter.
The case is United States v. Williams, S.D. Ohio, No. 1:23-mj-00858, 10/26/23.
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