FBI agent charged with stealing nearly $1M in crypto from investigation target
An FBI counterintelligence supervisor took about US$925,000 worth of cryptocurrency from a foreign intelligence target he was investigating and moved it to his own wallet, according to a criminal complaint filed in Virginia last week.
Patrick Steven Yaroch, a former FBI agent, was arrested on July 31 and charged with stealing nearly $1 million worth of cryptocurrency from an investigation target, according to the Washington Examiner. Yaroch, who had been with the FBI since 2017 and held a Top Secret clearance, was fired by the bureau on the same day as his arrest.
The affidavit does not disclose the specific nation whose accounts were targeted, stating only that it was an adversarial country, though two sources familiar with the matter reported it to be Russia. Yaroch, a supervisory special agent in the FBI's Counterintelligence and Espionage Division, had allegedly become dissatisfied with the FBI's inability to take action against the adversarial nation's use of cryptocurrency.
Starting in late 2024, he reportedly searched FBI systems for passphrases attached to the target's accounts, created his own wallet, and moved the funds across 10 to 12 transactions. The FBI began investigating Yaroch when he approached a Justice Department employee via encrypted messaging app Signal, confessing to making "very poor decisions related to cryptocurrency wallets."
No money was found to have been spent, and Yaroch did not interact with anyone connected to the foreign accounts. U.S. Magistrate Judge Lindsey R. Vaala ordered Yaroch's temporary detention on August 3, with a follow-up hearing scheduled for the next day. Prosecutors are expected to seek an indictment.
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