Former congressional employee charged with swiping nearly 250 government cellphones

WASHINGTON — A former congressional employee has been rung up on a charge that he stole approximately 240 government cellphones from the House of Representatives, federal prosecutors said Monday.

Christopher Southerland of Maryland was indicted last month on a charge that he "willfully and knowingly embezzled, stole and converted to his own use cellular telephones" that belonged to the government, a court filing unsealed in January shows. The total value of the phones was about $150,000, according to the office of U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro.

The indictment alleges the phones were being swiped right and left between January and May of 2023, while Southerland was working as a system administrator for the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

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As part of his job, Southerland was authorized to order phones for the approximately 80 staff members on the committee. He ordered 240 of those phones to be sent to his home in Glen Burnie, Maryland, in that five-month period, Pirro's office said in a news release Monday.

Prosecutors allege that Southerland sold more than 200 of the phones to a pawn shop near his home and that he directed a shop employee to sell the phones “in parts” to bypass the House’s management software, which enables the House to remotely secure and monitor its phones.

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The scheme was first discovered when one of the phones that Southerland stole was sold whole on eBay, prosecutors said. When the purchaser turned on the phone, it displayed a number for the House of Representatives Technology Service Desk, Pirro's office said. The purchaser called the number, and other House employees determined that a number of phones that had been purchased by Southerland were unaccounted for, according to prosecutors.

Southerland was indicted last month and arrested last week, court filings show. His public defender did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.