GRAND RAPIDS, MICH. — A Grand Rapids-based employee of the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) has signed a plea agreement, admitting to sending agency records to a person tied to a gun rights group.
According to federal court documents, Christodoulos Santafianos was charged with misdemeanor Theft or Conversion of a Government Record and pleaded guilty on April 20, 2023.
Santafianos started working in the ATF's Grand Rapids Field Office in 2015 as an Industry Operations Investigator. In his role, he often handled “ATF records and communications that were not intended for public dissemination, including agency policies, documents marked law enforcement sensitive, records containing tax information under the National Firearms Act... and other records clearly marked or intended for internal agency use only.”
Court documents say, in 2019, Santafianos began mishandling confidential documents, specifically forwarding hundreds of agency records to a personal email account, then sending many of those documents to an individual linked to gun rights advocacy groups. Investigators say Santafianos continued to release records for several years.
Court documents do not describe or name the advocacy groups, but say the groups regularly published or reported on details contained in the ATF records. Many times, they published details on websites or YouTube within days of the unauthorized release.
Some of the records contained information about upcoming inspections of firearm manufacturers and distributors, allowing for advanced notice on regulatory enforcement action. Other documents included details about Polymer80 buy-build-shoot kits and Forced Reset Triggers.
According to court records, Santafianos "clearly understood that these agency records were not to be released to third parties without prior approval of ATF management officials."
According to the plea agreement, Santafianos resigned from his role at the ATF, effective April 20, 2023. He also agreed that he will never apply for or work with the ATF or the U.S. Department of Justice.
According to court records, the mandatory sentence Santafianos could face is one year of imprisonment, one year of supervised release and a $100,000 fine.
A sentencing date has not been set.
