Fraudulent Cell Phone Resales Lead To Sentence For Alexandria Woman

ALEXANDRIA, VA — A former employee of the nonprofit YMCA of Metropolitan Washington from Alexandria was sentenced to prison in a case of fraudulently resold cell phones.

Celeste Santifer, 56, of Alexandria, was sentenced Friday in D.C. federal court to 41 months in prison for wire fraud with three years of supervised release. The sentence relates to fraud at her workplace, the YMCA of Metropolitan Washington, which has 16 branches and program centers in the DC area.

Santifer was an office manager at YMCA of Metropolitan Washington from 2007 until she was fired in May 2019. According to prosecutors, Santifer took advantage of an agreement with Verizon to buy cell phones provided at a lower price to the nonprofit YMCA-DC. From January 2016 to April 2019, Santifer received the discounted cell phones through online orders then disconnected them from service and sold them to companies buying new or used phones.

Prosecutors believe Santifer ordered over 1,000 phones that were sold for personal gain. The estimated value of the phones from Verizon was $618,090.

A YMCA spokesperson clarified that no YMCA money was used to purchase the phones at the discounted price. According to the YMCA, Santifer set up a fraudulent "YMCA" account with Verizon and bought the phones without the nonprofit's money.

Santifer had pleaded guilty in the case in October 2022. A judge ordered Santifer pay a restitution of $618,090.