A Georgia woman is facing a massive prison sentence after abruptly throwing in the towel during her criminal trial, pleading no contest to running a highly sophisticated multi-state shoplifting and fraud ring that targeted major retail chains.
Santina Green, who also goes by Santina Hill, entered an open plea of no contest in Lee County to charges of racketeering, conspiracy to commit racketeering, and fraud.
The Decatur, Georgia resident decided to stop her trial in the Twentieth Judicial Circuit as statewide prosecutors began calling an international lineup of witnesses from England, Massachusetts, Virginia, and various Florida counties. Green now faces up to 75 years in the Florida Department of Corrections, with sentencing officially set for August 3, 2026.
According to investigators with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE), Green was the ringleader of a complex scam that specifically ripped off TJX Companies Inc. stores, which include TJ Maxx, Marshalls, and HomeGoods.
The operation defrauded Florida stores of more than $50,000, and cross-border losses reached up to $300,000.
The ring’s specific method focused on high-value area rugs priced between $400 and $1,000. Between November 2020 and May 2021, members of the group would buy expensive rugs at TJX “combo” stores using debit cards. They would immediately stage a “change of mind” return to get their money back while keeping the receipt.
From there, the group used the original or duplicated receipts at different TJX locations to return cheap, inferior rugs bought elsewhere. To pull it off, they forged “silent price coding” on the cheap rugs to trick store employees into thinking they were the genuine, high-priced items.
The entire hustle relied on exploiting tech blindspots. The group took advantage of communication delays between the point-of-sale systems of combo stores and standalone stores. Because the systems did not update instantly, Green’s ring was able to secure multiple cash or debit refunds on a single receipt before the company’s national database could flag the fraud. Authorities eventually linked nine specific debit cards to 84 fraudulent transactions across Florida.
Law enforcement ultimately identified Green as the primary suspect by tracking store surveillance footage, return databases, bank records, and her use of government-issued IDs and multiple aliases. She was tied to three co-defendants in the case: Albert Junior Boyce, Jr., Diana Rochelle Harris, and David Lee Griffin.
The case was brought to an end by Chief Assistant Statewide Prosecutor Tim Donnelly and Assistant Statewide Prosecutor Paul Thomas.
“This conviction holds a fraudster accountable for leading a sophisticated racketeering scheme that stole hundreds of thousands of dollars across multiple states,” Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said following the plea. “Thanks to FDLE and our statewide prosecutors, this organized fraud ring has been stopped. We will continue our fight against retail fraud to protect Florida businesses and keep prices down for families.”
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