Former FBI Agent Pleads Guilty: Stole About $2.47 Million in Crypto Using Credentials From 35 Investigations
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia announced on November 5 that former FBI agent Patrick Steven Yaroch has pleaded guilty in federal court in Alexandria to wire fraud and money laundering, admitting that he used his access to steal cryptocurrency through wallet credentials the FBI had collected in its investigations, taking about $2.47 million.
According to court documents, Yaroch, 37, of Ashburn, Virginia, worked from 2017 through early 2025 at the FBI's Boston Division on an investigative squad focused on an adversarial nation state. From February 2025 to July 31, 2026, he worked in the FBI's Counterintelligence and Espionage Division, where he had access to FBI systems that contained cryptocurrency credentials the bureau had collected as part of its investigations.
Beginning no later than December 2024, prosecutors say, Yaroch stole cryptocurrency from wallets controlled by the subjects of various other investigations and by adversarial nation-state actors, and from at least one wallet the FBI had created for an operation. He conducted approximately 100 fraudulent transfers using credentials related to 35 separate FBI investigations, illicitly gaining a total of $2,474,380.66.
Once he moved the stolen cryptocurrency, Yaroch would exchange it for a different type of cryptocurrency and then launder it through additional financial transactions to obscure its source, nature and ownership. Between November 25, 2025, and January 13, 2026, he transferred approximately $93,082 to one of his own accounts and then moved the funds among his other accounts, sending payments to cover personal debts including credit cards, car payments and other loans.
Court documents also show that Yaroch intended to use the proceeds to finance a new life abroad. He asked ChatGPT how to maximize profit from investments and where to live in the European Union. Following ChatGPT's suggestion of buying a vineyard in Portugal, on June 15, 2026, he gave a power of attorney to lawyers in Portugal to register him with the Portuguese Tax and Customs Authority, obtain his tax identification number and collect the password to his finance portal, and he made arrangements to travel to Portugal in September 2026.
As set forth in the agreed statement of facts, Yaroch's actions compromised multiple FBI investigations related to both criminal groups and nation-state adversaries, deprived FBI employees of their ability to carry out their functions to protect public safety and national security, and compromised FBI sources and methods used in foreign intelligence collection and criminal investigations.
U.S. District Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles accepted the plea. Yaroch is scheduled to be sentenced on March 4, 2027, and faces up to 20 years in prison; the court will determine the sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors. The case, No. 1:26-CR-208, is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kathleen Robeson and Russell Carlberg, with significant assistance from the National Security Cyber Section of the Justice Department's National Security Division and the Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General Mid-Atlantic Region.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：位于华盛顿的美国联邦调查局（FBI）总部胡佛大楼。本案被告曾任 FBI 探员、被指盗用该局调查系统中的钱包凭证。ajay_suresh 摄，CC BY 2.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: The J. Edgar Hoover Building, FBI headquarters in Washington. The defendant was a former FBI agent accused of misusing wallet credentials held in bureau investigative systems. By ajay_suresh, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
