A former FBI agent has pleaded guilty to stealing about $2.47 million in cryptocurrency using wallet credentials collected during FBI investigations.
Patrick Steven Yaroch, 37, of Ashburn, Virginia, pleaded guilty to wire fraud and money laundering in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, the US Department of Justice announced on Thursday, 5 November. He faces up to 20 years in prison and is due to be sentenced on 4 March 2027.
How he did it
Yaroch worked in the FBI’s Boston office from 2017 to early 2025, on a squad investigating an unnamed foreign state. He then moved to the bureau’s Counterintelligence and Espionage Division, where he had access to FBI systems holding crypto wallet credentials gathered during investigations.
From no later than December 2024, he took crypto from wallets linked to the subjects of other investigations, from foreign state actors and from at least one wallet the FBI had set up for an operation. He made about 100 transfers using credentials from 35 FBI investigations.
He swapped the stolen funds into other cryptocurrencies and moved them through further transactions to hide where they came from. He used some of the money to pay off credit cards, car payments and other loans.
Prosecutors said his actions compromised several investigations into criminal groups and foreign adversaries, as well as sources and methods used to gather foreign intelligence.
He turned himself in
On 29 July, Yaroch told a former colleague at the Justice Department’s National Security Division that he had made “very poor decisions” involving crypto wallets. He then reported himself to FBI headquarters.
He said he had become frustrated that the bureau “could not or would not act” against an adversary’s crypto accounts, and had decided to “take matters into his own hands.” At the time, he said he had made about 10 to 12 transfers worth less than $1 million, far below the figures in his plea.
Agents searched his home two days later and seized a hardware wallet, three passports and a piece of paper with wallet recovery phrases written on it. Yaroch had also been preparing to move to Portugal, giving lawyers there power of attorney to get him a tax number and arranging to travel in September.
Funds recovered
According to an FBI affidavit, agents found about $188,600 in an exchange account and about $933,800 on Suilend, a lending protocol on the Sui blockchain. They moved about $925,000 to government-controlled wallets. About $165,600 held in US dollars on the exchange could not be moved the same way.
What happens next
Yaroch will be sentenced in March. The case is likely to raise questions about how law enforcement agencies store and control access to the crypto credentials they collect during investigations.
