Venkatesh Rao, Theft of Government Property, Maryland 2021

Greenbelt, Maryland – A former high-ranking official at the Federal Reserve Board has been caught red-handed in a brazen scheme to steal thousands of dollars’ worth of government documents.

Venkatesh Rao, a 67-year-old resident of Bethesda, Maryland, pleaded guilty on March 18, 2021 to theft of government property from his former employer, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.

According to court documents, Rao made the fateful decision to steal the documents after his job performance was deemed ‘unsatisfactory’ by the Federal Reserve Board in 2019. In a blatant attempt to cover his tracks, Rao entered the FRB building in Washington, D.C. approximately 16 times over the course of five weekend days in November 2019, printing more than 50 restricted government documents from his workstation.

Rao, a former employee of the Federal Reserve Board, faces a maximum sentence of one year in federal prison for theft of government property. U.S. Magistrate Judge Gina L. Simms has scheduled sentencing for May 28, 2021.

Acting United States Attorney Jonathan F. Lenzner commended the Federal Reserve Board Office of Inspector General for its work in the investigation. Lenzner thanked Assistant U.S. Attorneys Harry M. Gruber and Peter J. Martinez, who are prosecuting the case.

The theft is believed to have occurred over a period of several weeks in November 2019, with Rao removing the restricted documents, which contained proprietary information used by the FRB to conduct bank stress tests, from the FRB building and storing them at his home.

With this guilty plea, Rao has confirmed that he knowingly and willfully stole government property, putting the entire nation’s banking system at risk.

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