WASHINGTON — A former employee of a YMCA in D.C. has been sentenced after buying over 1,000 cell phones for the organization and then reselling them for cash.
According to the Department of Justice (DOJ), 56-year-old Celeste Santifer, of Alexandria, Virginia, was a former employee of the YMCA of Metropolitan Washington, also known as YMCA-DC, which is a non-profit with 16 branches and program centers in the D.C.-area. While there, she worked as an office manager from around 2007 until her termination in May 2019.
During her time at YMCA-DC, Santifer planned a scheme to defraud by taking advantage of an arrangement with Verizon to sell the organization cell phones for its employees at a discounted rate, according to officials. From at least January 2016 through April 2019, she placed online orders for discounted phones that she personally receives, disconnected from service, and sold to companies that buy and sell new or slightly used cell phones.
Ultimately, she ordered over 1,000 phones for this purpose with the value being $618,090, court documents state.
Santifer was sentenced on Thursday in D.C.'s U.S. District Court to 41 months in prison for committing wire fraud, authorities said. She had previously pleaded guilty on Oct. 3, 2022 for the crimes. In addition to the prison term, the judge ordered restitution of $618,090, and three years of supervised release.