John Festino collected hundreds of thousands of dollars from the thefts, federal prosecutors said
OLD FORGE, Pa. — Federal prosecutors accused a Lackawanna County man of stealing more than $2 million worth of telecommunications equipment from his employer and hawking the loot to third-party resellers.
John Festino, of Old Forge, agreed to plead guilty in federal court to a count of unlawful monetary transactions, according to a plea agreement signed last week by U.S. Attorney Brian Miller.
The charge carries a potential maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, but filings show authorities will ask for a term at the bottom of the range calculated U.S. District Court Judge Julia Munley.
The criminal paperwork states that Festino worked for a telecommunications company. A parallel civil lawsuit shows that he had been employed by Cogent Communications as a field engineer.
As part of his job, Festino received work orders from Cogent to complete upgrades and repairs and had access to the company’s inventory system to order the equipment he needed, the lawsuit states. The equipment shipped to a UPS store in Dunmore.
Authorities said that over a span of seven months in late 2024 and the first half of 2025, Festino used old “statement of work” numbers to order equipment he had no intention of installing.
He requisitioned at least 135 transponders that ranged in price between a few thousand dollars to more than $40,000 each, the company said in its lawsuit. In total, the 135 pieces of equipment cost $2,245,158.80.
Cogent caught onto Festino by the summer of 2025 when they noticed that the serial numbers of seven of the transponders Festino ordered were in use in another network. Festino, they determined, had been reselling the transponders to third parties and keeping the cash for himself.
Festino collected $434,550 from selling the stolen equipment, according to a criminal information filed in federal court.
Once Festino realized his employer was suspicious, he resigned and said he wanted to spend more time with family as he dealt with an “early stage medical condition,” Cogent said in court filings.
Cogent filed a lawsuit to recoup the more than $2 million they lost, according to the paperwork. The civil case remained ongoing Tuesday.
Festino’s next court date for the criminal case was not immediately available.