A 22-year-old employee at a Hyde Park resale shop is accused of quietly siphoning off nearly $31,000 from the business, with prosecutors saying she used fake transactions, bogus paperwork and real customer names to pull it off.
According to court documents, Jimela Cissoko was arrested after investigators alleged she orchestrated the scheme at the Clothes Mentor location in Hyde Park, moving money out of the store's accounts over several months. The criminal complaints list more than a dozen charges in Hamilton County tied to the alleged pattern of fraud.
As reported by WLWT, court records say Cissoko used the names of at least 10 different victims and created fake documents to push through sales and returns. The complaints describe transactions that typically involved hundreds of dollars at a time and estimate the total loss to the Hyde Park Clothes Mentor at nearly $31,000. WLWT reports Cissoko was arrested and charged with identity fraud, telecommunications fraud, and tampering with records.
How investigators say the scheme worked
Prosecutors allege Cissoko, who worked at the Hyde Park Plaza Clothes Mentor, generated fake paperwork and ran legitimate customer names through the register so the activity would look routine. The complaints describe a pattern stretching from December 2025 through May 2026, with most of the individual transactions kept in the hundreds-of-dollars range.
Investigators say that the lower-dollar, repeat approach helped keep the alleged fraud under the radar, allowing funds to be diverted from the store without immediately triggering internal red flags.
Charges and possible penalties
The charges outlined in the complaints fall under Ohio's fraud and records-tampering laws. Under the Ohio Revised Code, Chapter 2913, offenses tied to higher dollar amounts are prosecuted as felonies, with a loss of around $31,000 generally landing in the third-degree felony range for those sections.
On top of potential prison time and fines, state law allows victims to seek civil restitution, so any criminal case could be followed by efforts to recover losses through the courts.
What's next for the case
WLWT reported on June 23 that Cissoko was scheduled to appear in Hamilton County court the week after the station's report. In a statement to WLWT, Clothes Mentor's general management declined to discuss details, saying, "Because it is an ongoing case and there has been no sentence, we’re not at liberty to discuss yet."
The case remains active. Future court filings will set the calendar for upcoming hearings and determine whether prosecutors take the case to trial or resolve it in another way.
If you shopped at the store
Shoppers who suspect their information may have been misused are urged to file a police report and keep a close eye on bank and credit accounts for any unusual activity.
The Ohio Attorney General's office offers an Identity Theft resource with step-by-step guidance on what to do next, and the federal IdentityTheft.gov site provides additional reporting tools and recovery checklists for victims.
