Federal prosecutors say a Maryland man ran a years-long theft operation inside the U.S. House of Representatives, allegedly taking hundreds of government-issued cell phones and turning them into personal profit.
The Department of Justice disclosed details of the case on Monday.
Christopher Southerland, 43, of Glen Burnie, was arrested Friday after a federal indictment was unsealed in U.S. District Court, according to U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro. Authorities estimate the stolen devices were worth more than $150,000.
Court filings allege Southerland worked as a system administrator for the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure from April 2020 through July 2023—an IT role that included the ability to request mobile phones for staff.
Prosecutors say that between January and May 2023, he exploited that access by ordering roughly 240 new government phones and having them shipped to his home in Maryland. At the time, the committee had only about 80 staff members, investigators noted.
Authorities further allege that Southerland sold more than 200 of the phones to a nearby pawn shop, a volume investigators say was far beyond any normal device replacement cycle. Prosecutors claim he also told a pawn shop employee to break the phones down and sell them “in parts,” allegedly to make them harder to identify and to avoid detection through the House’s mobile device management software, which can track and secure government phones remotely.
Investigators say the scheme began to unravel because of a mistake by the pawn shop: one of the phones was reportedly sold intact on eBay to an unsuspecting buyer. When the buyer turned it on, the screen displayed a contact number for the House of Representatives Technology Service Desk. After the purchaser called, House officials traced the device and found multiple missing phones tied to orders allegedly placed by Southerland—triggering a wider investigation.
The U.S. Capitol Police and the FBI are jointly investigating the case. Prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia are handling the matter, with Assistant U.S. Attorney Jake Green leading the prosecution, assisted by current and former federal prosecutors.
