A now-former Secret Service agent has pleaded guilty to stealing cryptocurrency that was seized during the execution of a search warrant at a Phoenix residence.
Anthony Joseph Evans admitted that when he worked for the Secret Service in Phoenix, he took about $56,000 in cryptocurrency from the agency’s secure evidence vault and moved it under his own control. He then converted it into U.S. dollars, moved that into multiple bank accounts and used the money for his own purchases.
Evans worked for the agency from February 2018 to November 2022. According to the plea agreement: In late December 2021, he took a Nano S hard wallet that had been seized at the residence of some identified only as N.M. in court filings, made note of its contents and returned it to the secure vault.
Weeks later, he used the private keys for the cryptocurrency and transferred one Bitcoin, work at the time some $47,000 as well as nearly 11,0000 XRP worth another $10,000 and transferred the crypto to two wallets he owned.
The next day, he sent the Bitcoin wallet to his own crypto exchanges, converted it into U.S. dollars transferred that money to bank accounts he had with Chase and Capital One and used the money for his own purchases, including paying off a debt. He sent some of the XRP to a crypto exchange in the Cayman Islands, converted that to U.S. dollar coins and and then put that back into his own crypto account.
Under a plea agreement with U.S. federal prosecutors, Evans faces up to one year and a day of prison as well as restitution.
