The Department of Justice‘s former contractor, identified as Javan King, 42, of Laurel, Maryland, was sentenced to 12 months and one day in prison in U.S. District Court on Tuesday, May 26, 2026. He was convicted in connection with the theft of more than 4,800 government cell phones while he worked in the Department.

U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro announced the update in an official press release published on the official website.

According to the media release, King pleaded guilty on February 10, 2026, before Judge Jia M. Cobb on a charge of mail fraud. Beyond a 12-month prison term, he has also been directed to serve two years of conditional release and ordered to pay $1,319,172.85 in restitution. Federal prosecutors had sought a two-year prison sentence.

King worked as an IT contractor for the Civil Rights Division at the Justice Department. During that period, he cheated the Department of more than $1.3 million. He did this by requesting the Department to order thousands of mobile devices it did not need.

After receiving those phones, he reportedly sold them to phone-buying businesses, earning more than $1.3 million. He then spent that money on gambling at MGM casinos and through FanDuel, vacations, private school fees, and a down payment on a $92,000 Range Rover SUV. The fraud was exposed after a Kentucky-based private citizen contacted the DOJ in late August 2025. She told them she had learned that an iPhone she bought online belonged to the Department.

King accepted that his actions resulted in losses exceeding $1.3 million to the Department due to payments made to AT&T for unnecessary phone lines and devices. The DOJ’s Office of Inspector General investigated the case while Assistant U.S. Attorney Kondi Kleinman handled the prosecution.

Reflecting on the case, U.S. Attorney Pirro described the 42-year-old’s theft of government phones as a “brazen betrayal of the public trust” that cost taxpayers more than $1 million. She pointed out that King wasted the money stolen from the Department 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,” she added.

In other news, a 41-year-old U.S. Border Patrol agent had confessed to defrauding the government by using his official duty hours to run a private business. At the time, he was supposed to be in the field, but he was observed at his home during scheduled work hours on multiple dates in February and March 2025.

Later, on April 22, the FBI installed two CCTV cameras to observe his activities. The footage confirmed that he spent his official working hours running his private business. That was not all. He also submitted his biweekly timecards claiming nearly $17,724.74 for a reported 399.58 hours of work. Per justice.gov, the agent could be sentenced to a maximum of 20 years in prison, along with a maximum fine of $250,000.