SCI Phoenix Inmate Launched Complex Fraud Scheme: Feds

SKIPPACK TOWNSHIP, PA — A man behind bars at SCI Phoenix in Montgomery County orchestrated a complex fraud scheme, taking hundreds of thousands of dollars from the federal government's pandemic relief fund, the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania announced.

Alexander Daravina, 38, of Dallas, Luzerne County, who also went by the aliases of Alexander Danazina and “Colombian Al,” has been charged with seven counts of aggravated identity theft and wire fraud. Daravina worked with a man on the outside, Moses Benabe, 25, of Philadelphia, who faces similar charges, officials said.

From around July 2020 to Sept. 2020, the pair obtained social security numbers, birthdates, and other key information of dozens of real people, many of them in prison, and used it to apply for benefits on their behalf, according to federal prosecutors.

However, not only are incarcerated individuals ineligible for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA), but Daravina and Benabe kept the money for themselves, officials said.

All told, they were able to obtain some $218,570 in the pandemic funds for themselves, including numerous debit cards with thousands of dollars on each, officials said.

The U.S. Attorney's Office says that Benabe and Daravina each face up to 161 years behind bars, with a mandatory minimum of two years in prison and three years of probation. They could face up to a $3.7 million fine.

Trial dates are forthcoming.