Local Man Sentenced to Prison For Loan Sharking
Over Two-Year Period, School Teacher Pays Defendant $48,000 on $6,000 Debt

Washington, D.C. – A 44-year-old District Heights, Maryland man, Darren Jenkins, has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for making extortionate extensions of credit, which is more commonly known as “loan sharking,” U.S. Attorney Jeffrey A. Taylor and Joseph Persichini, Jr., Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, announced today.

Jenkins received his sentence earlier today in U.S. District Court before the Honorable Rosemary M. Collyer, who also ordered the defendant to make restitution in the amount of $61,590 to two of his loan sharking victims. Jenkins entered his guilty plea in June 2008.

During the prior plea proceeding, Jenkins admitted that between October 2002 and October 2007, he made 11 separate loans to a local school teacher, totaling an estimated $6,000. At the time the loans were made, both Jenkins and the teacher understood that delay in making repayment or failure to make repayment could result in the use of violence against the teacher. During the years that the loans were outstanding, Jenkins charged the teacher 10% interest per week and late penalties, and he used threats of violence against the teacher to collect the loan repayments, including the interest and penalties for late payments. For a two-year period, the teacher wrote more than $48,000 in checks to Jenkins in an effort to repay the outstanding balance. The teacher also made many additional cash payments to Jenkins until she finally notified the FBI in August 2007. Today, Judge Collyer ordered Jenkins to make restitution to the teacher in the amount of $52,000, and to a second victim of his loan sharking scheme in the amount of $9,590.

In announcing the sentence, U.S. Attorney Taylor and FBI Assistant Director in Charge Persichini praised the efforts of FBI Special Agent Hadley Etienne, who conducted the investigation with the assistance of FBI Special Agent John Hummell. They also commended the U.S. Attorney’s Office staff who assisted in the successful prosecution, including Paralegal Phaylyn Hunt, Legal Assistant Latoya Wade, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Frederick Yette, who prosecuted the case.

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