Brooklyn-Based Ninedee Gang Member Pleads Guilty to Covid-19 Unemployment Benefits Fraud Scheme — Eastern District of New York

Summary

Press release of the U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of New York, dated April 9, 2025. Darnell Jones pleaded guilty in federal court in Brooklyn to conspiring to engage in wire fraud and committing aggravated identity theft before United States District Judge Dora L. Irizarry. The release says that from March 2020 through August 2021 Jones used stolen personal identifying information to fraudulently obtain more than $800,000 from federally funded unemployment insurance programs, and describes Jones as a member of the Ninedee Gang who led the gang's fraud schemes. Jones also admitted fraudulently obtaining personal identifying information between May 2021 and October 2024, with an intended victim loss of more than $3.5 million. Jones faces up to 32 years in prison.

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PRESS RELEASE


Brooklyn-Based Ninedee Gang Member
Pleads Guilty to Covid-19 Unemployment
Benefits Fraud Scheme
Wednesday, April 9, 2025

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of New York

Earlier today, in federal court in Brooklyn, Darnell Jones, also known as “EJ,” pleaded
guilty to conspiring to engage in wire fraud and committing aggravated identity
theft. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic from March 2020 through August
2021, Jones engaged in a fraud scheme using stolen personal identifying information to
fraudulently obtain more than $800,000 from federally funded unemployment insurance
programs established under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES)
Act. In addition, as part of his guilty plea, Jones admitted to fraudulently obtaining
personal identifying information, including bank account information, between May
2021 and October 2024, to commit wire fraud with an intended victim loss of more than
$3.5 million. The proceeding was held before United States District Judge Dora L.
Irizarry. When sentenced, Jones faces up to 32 years in prison, with a mandatory
minimum sentence of two years’ imprisonment.

John J. Durham, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Christopher
G. Raia, Assistant Director in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field
Office (FBI), and Jessica S. Tisch, Commissioner, New York City Police Department
(NYPD), announced the guilty plea.

“Today, Jones admitted to his extensive fraud scheme to swindle millions of dollars of
unemployment benefits by using the stolen identities of innocent victims,” stated United
States Attorney Durham. “Even worse, the federal funds were intended to provide relief
to those most in need during the COVID-19 pandemic and instead were diverted by the
defendant to finance violent crimes of the Ninedee gang in Brooklyn. My Office and our
law enforcement partners recognize that a key means of dismantling violent gangs is, as
here, to cut off their sources of income.”
Mr. Durham also thanked the U.S. Department of Labor, Office of the Inspector General
and the New York State Department of Labor, Office of Special Investigations for their
assistance on the case.

“At the height of a global crisis, Darnell Jones exploited the identities of vulnerable New
Yorkers to bankroll a violent gang’s criminal enterprise,” stated NYPD Commissioner
Tisch. “His guilty plea today is a powerful reminder that no scam is too sophisticated,
no network too hidden – we will find you, and we will bring you to justice. I commend
our investigators, the FBI, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for their relentless pursuit of
justice.”

According to court filings, witness testimony, and the record from the defendant’s
detention hearing, Jones is a member of the Ninedee Gang, a violent criminal enterprise
operating out of the Louis H. Pink Houses in East New York, Brooklyn, who led the
gang’s fraud schemes. Ninedee Gang members were affiliated with the “5” and “6” Pink
Houses apartment buildings and engaged in gang-related violence within and outside
of the New York City Housing Authority complex. The Ninedee Gang protected its turf
through violence, made money by selling drugs and committing fraud, and sought to
silence those they perceived to be working with law enforcement. Ninedee Gang
members were responsible for the July 2020 murder of Shatavia Walls, a former federal
witness who testified against a Ninedee Gang member in Brooklyn federal court in
2019. Seven Ninedee Gang members have been prosecuted for their gang-affiliated
crimes, including the murder in-aid-of-racketeering of Shatavia Walls. Five Ninedee
defendants have pled guilty and a sixth, Maliek Miller, was convicted at trial in June
2024. The remaining defendant, high-ranking Ninedee leader Raquel Dunton, is
charged with drug trafficking and acting as an accessory after-the-fact to Walls’ murder,
among other crimes, and is awaiting trial.

Jones and other Ninedee Gang members engaged in “scamming,” or various financial
fraud schemes, including check fraud, postal money order fraud, and unemployment
benefits fraud. For example, beginning in approximately November 2020, Jones sent a
co-conspirator text messages containing the names of 10 New York residents, the
purpose of which was to obtain personally identifiable information (PII) for those
individuals without their consent. The co-conspirator sent Jones the requested
individuals’ dates of birth, Social Security numbers, and driver’s license numbers. In
exchange, Jones paid the co-conspirator with cryptocurrency. Subsequently, Jones
submitted fraudulent claims for unemployment insurance benefits to the New York
State Department of Labor using the stolen PII. As introduced at the trial of Ninedee
Gang leader Maliek Miller, text messages in 2020 showed that Jones coordinated with
fellow Ninedee Gang member Kevin Wint about pooling their money to purchase
“glicks” or “plates,” which are references to firearms. Notably, in August 2021, law
enforcement agents recovered two firearms, which were outfitted with laser sights, in a
residence shared by Jones and Wint.

The government’s case is being handled by the Office’s Organized Crime and Gang
Section. Assistant United States Attorneys Emily J. Dean and Irisa Chen are in charge of
the prosecution with the assistance of Paralegal Specialist Theodore Rader.

The Defendant:

DARNELL JONES (also known as “EJ”)
Age: 30
Brooklyn, New York

E.D.N.Y. Docket No. 24-CR-369 (DLI)

Contact
John Marzulli
Danielle Blustein Hass
United States Attorney’s Office
(718) 254-6323

Updated April 9, 2025

Topic
FINANCIAL FRAUD
Component
USAO - New York, Eastern


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