A former bakery owner who pleaded guilty to stealing a dead baby's identity in order to receive pandemic loans has been sentenced to six years in prison. Ava Misseldine, 50, stole the identity of Brie Bourgeois. The baby died in 1979 and was buried in Columbus, Ohio. Misseldine obtained and used the name for a series of fraudulent transactions, including PPP loans.
She received $1.5 million in loans, which she used to buy two out-of-state homes. She also initially used the identity to obtain an Ohio ID and a Social Security card in 2003. Four years later, she continued to use it to obtain a student pilot certificate and a passport.
She went on to work as a JetSelect flight attendant under the false identity, which is a private company based in Columbus. She later moved on to own a bakery.
Once the pandemic started, Misseldine used the fake identity and her real name to obtain financial relief through the PPP program. She received around $1.5 million in loans. She used the money to purchase a home in Michigan for $327,500, and another in Utah for $647,500.
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She was arrested in Utah in June 2022 when authorities became suspicious of her after she tried to renew her passport in 2021. As part of her guilty plea, she has to pay the entire $1.5 million in restitution, as well as forfeit her Utah home and the profits on her Michigan home, which she recently sold.
