A Georgia woman faces up to 75 years in prison for stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from TJ Maxx, Marshalls, and HomeGoods stores through multiple fake returns of expensive rugs.
Santina Green, also known as Santina Hill, of Decatur, a city north-east of Atlanta, entered an open no-contest plea to racketeering, conspiracy to commit racketeering, and fraud charges stemming from an organised retail criminal operation.
Green is accused of defrauding TJX Companies Inc. retailers in Florida of more than $50,000 and up to $300,000 altogether through many fraudulent returns, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier revealed Tuesday.
Between November 2020 and May 2021, a group of fraudsters used debit cards to buy pricey rugs at TJX stores (including TJ Maxx, Marshalls, and HomeGoods) before allegedly changing their minds and returning them.
Green and others would preserve the receipt and then use it or a copy at other TJX locations to return cheaper, non-TJX carpets stamped with forged price coding to make them appear to be legitimate products, according to prosecutors.
Prosecutors said the plan took advantage of delays in reconciliation between combination and standalone store point-of-sale systems, allowing for several returns on a single receipt before national flagging.
Investigators traced nine debit cards to the defendants, who were involved in 84 fraudulent transactions around Florida.
Authorities identified Green as the principal suspect based on government-issued IDs, various aliases, store surveillance video, return data, and bank records.
She was connected to co-subjects Albert Junior Boyce Jr., Diana Rochelle Harris, and David Lee Gryphon.
Prosecutors stated that Green was involved in the scam until April 2021.
Green submitted her no-contest plea in Lee County’s Twentieth Judicial Circuit Court. The attorney general’s office stated that prosecutors had called witnesses from Massachusetts, Virginia, and many Florida counties before Green submitted her plea.
“This conviction holds a fraudster accountable for leading a sophisticated racketeering scheme that stole hundreds of thousands of dollars across multiple states,” Uthmeier stated.
She faces up to 75 years in Florida’s Department of Corrections. Her sentence has been scheduled for August 3.
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