On March 28, 2024, a former FBI Special Agent assigned to the Louisville Division’s Lexington Resident Agency in Kentucky was sentenced to 36 months of probation for one count of obstruction of justice and one count of possession of an unregistered firearm. Michael Van Aelstyn was sentenced in the Eastern District of Kentucky. According to the factual statement in support of the guilty plea, on or about July 5, 2017, after serving an arrest warrant, law enforcement officers recovered two firearms from a residence, and Van Aelstyn transported the firearms to his FBI office. According to the factual statement, from in or about January 2018 through in or about April 2018, Van Aelstyn transported the same firearms to his personal gun safe to avoid their discovery during an imminent office inspection, because he believed that the firearms’ presence without proper documentation or disposition would be cause for concern for office inspectors. Further, the factual statement states that in or about January 2021, Van Aelstyn transferred one of the firearms to an associate and told the associate not to let anyone else know the source of the firearm, and Van Aelstyn subsequently destroyed the other firearm. Additionally, according to the factual statement, on various dates between on or about October 17, 2020, and on or about July 9, 2021, Van Aelstyn knowingly and illegally possessed a shotgun with a barrel less than 18 inches long which was not registered in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record. The investigation was conducted by the OIG’s Chicago Office and the ATF.
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Case Action
Sentencing