Former Department of Justice Contractor Sentenced to Prison for $1.3 Million Cell Phone Fraud Scheme

WASHINGTON – Javan King, 42, of Laurel, Maryland, was sentenced today in U.S. District Court to 12 months and one day in prison in connection with his theft of more than 4,800 government cell phones when he worked for the Department of Justice. King pleaded guilty on Feb. 10, 2026, before Judge Jia M. Cobb to one count of mail fraud. In addition to the 12-month prison term, Judge Cobb ordered King to serve two years of supervised release and ordered him to pay $1,319,172.85 in restitution. Federal prosecutors had requested a prison term of 24 months. “King’s theft of thousands of government phones was a brazen betrayal of the public trust that drained taxpayers of more than a million dollars,” said U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro. “He then squandered the stolen money on gambling, luxury vacations, and a high‑end vehicle. He will now be required to repay the very funds he siphoned from the American taxpayer and serve a prison sentence for his crimes. " Between 2021 and 2025 King worked as an information technology contractor for the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice (DOJ). During that period, he defrauded DOJ out of more than $1.3 million by successfully requesting that DOJ order thousands of mobile devices that the Department did not need. After the phones were shipped to King at DOJ, he sent them to phone reselling businesses. In total, the businesses paid him more than $1.3 million for the phones. He spent the proceeds on a variety of things, including gambling at MGM casinos and on FanDuel, vacations, private school tuition, and a down payment on a $92,000 Range Rover SUV. The scheme came to light when a private citizen in Kentucky contacted the DOJ in late August 2025 noting that she had learned that an iPhone that she had purchased online belonged to the Department. King acknowledged that his scheme caused the Department of Justice to suffer an actual loss of more than $1.3 million because of fees that it paid AT&T for the unnecessary phone lines and phones.