Lasheta McClellan: PUA Fraud Scheme, Purchases, and Sentencing

Lasheta McClellan is the Columbus, Ohio, daycare owner sentenced in September 2025 to four years and eleven months in prison for orchestrating a nearly $6 million Pandemic Unemployment Assistance fraud scheme with an inside contact at the state jobs agency. She was also ordered to pay $1.5 million in restitution.¹ McClellan, who operated two childcare centers called Start 2 Finish Learning Academy, spent the stolen money on a Lamborghini, an $80,000 yacht birthday party, a personal music video, and liposuction.

How the Scheme Worked

McClellan ran the front end. She charged individuals a fee to help them collect PUA money they were not entitled to, then routed kickbacks to Alana Hamilton, an intermittent customer service representative at the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services who had been hired specifically to process pandemic unemployment claims.²

Hamilton was supposed to verify identity and employment documentation on PUA claims. Instead, she pulled up unassigned claims she had no legitimate reason to touch, then overrode fraud holds and voided verification requirements inside the state’s uFACTS system so benefits would release. She kept a running payment log in her iCloud account, tracking which claimants owed her and through which app.³

The kickbacks moved through McClellan’s daycare businesses. Investigators traced $57,250 in Zelle payments from the Start 2 Finish Learning Academy accounts to Hamilton, plus another $2,600 via CashApp, for a total of $59,850. McClellan also used the physical addresses of her two daycare locations to receive US Bank ReliaCards issued in other claimants’ names, and reused common email addresses across multiple fraudulent applications.²

How Much Was Stolen

Investigators linked the pair to 230 fraudulent PUA claims totaling $5,906,667.50. The two women worked jointly on some claims and independently on others:⁴

Together: 40 claims totaling $1,171,561.
Hamilton alone: 104 claims totaling $2,395,594.50.
McClellan alone: 86 claims totaling $2,339,512.

McClellan held 12 bank accounts that received PUA money tied to 34 separate claims, more than $508,000 in total. One of those claims was her own. Hamilton voided a fraud designation on McClellan’s personal claim in May 2021 and overrode a denied employment verification in August 2021, releasing $41,418 to McClellan directly. The day after her initial payout of nearly $60,000, McClellan sent Hamilton a $1,000 CashApp fee.³⁵

What She Bought With the Money

The spending became a central part of the public case against McClellan. According to reporting by the Columbus Dispatch, her purchases included a pearl white 2021 Lamborghini Urus, bought for $222,000 with 26 miles on the odometer; an $80,000 fortieth birthday celebration that combined a photo shoot at the Versace Mansion in Miami Beach with a 90-guest yacht party; a one-minute, high-production music video filmed on a Columbus parking deck and featuring the Lamborghini; and liposuction, the cost of which was not publicly detailed.⁶

How the Fraud Unraveled

ODJFS caught the pattern in February 2022 while reviewing the uFACTS audit trail. Claims Hamilton had cleared were missing required eligibility documentation. The agency referred the case to the Ohio Inspector General, which opened its investigation on February 15, 2022.²

Bank records connected the two women. Once Hamilton’s transactions pointed to McClellan’s daycare accounts, subpoenas to McClellan’s own banks opened up the far larger independent fraud she was running.⁷

On September 21, 2022, law enforcement executed search warrants at McClellan’s home in Delaware, Ohio, and at both Start 2 Finish locations in Columbus. Inside the home, investigators recovered $907,206 in cash, 16 US Bank ReliaCards issued in other people’s names, and boxes of documents including ODJFS determination letters, 1099-G tax forms, federal tax returns, photocopies of driver’s licenses and state IDs, and handwritten lists of names and Social Security numbers. The Ohio State Highway Patrol also froze $2,086,604.17 across her bank accounts, bringing recovered funds to roughly $3 million.³

Charges and Sentencing

On August 30, 2023, a Franklin County grand jury indicted Hamilton and McClellan on 19 counts each, including engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, theft, telecommunications fraud, tampering with records, money laundering, and filing incomplete, false and fraudulent tax returns. The indictment carried a forfeiture specification of $3,070,066.08.²

McClellan was sentenced on September 22, 2025, to four years and eleven months in prison and $1.5 million in restitution. The available records do not specify whether she pleaded guilty or was convicted at trial, or which specific counts produced the conviction.¹

Hamilton pleaded guilty to engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, theft, and filing incomplete, false and fraudulent returns. She was sentenced on October 30, 2025, to the same prison term of four years and eleven months and ordered to pay $1,171,561 in restitution to ODJFS. During the investigation, she admitted working with McClellan and described the fee-for-fraud arrangement in detail.¹³

Where She Is Now

As of December 2025, McClellan is incarcerated at the Ohio Reformatory for Women, serving her nearly five-year sentence.⁶

1
Ohio Inspector General. Press Release, File 2022-CA00003
2
Ohio Inspector General. Report of Investigation, File 2022-CA00003
3
Ohio Inspector General. Report of Investigation, File 2022-CA00003 (2025)
4
Ohio Inspector General. Press Release, File 2022-CA00003
5
AOL. Liposuction, Lamborghini, Hype Video: Ohio’s Pandemic Fraud
6
Columbus Dispatch. Ohio Prosecuted Some Pandemic-Era Fraudsters — See Their Crimes
7
Cleveland.com. Ohio Unemployment Worker, Daycare Owner Indicted for Arranging $6 Million in Fraudulent Claims