Former FBI Agent Pleads Guilty to Stealing $2.47M in Crypto From 35 Investigations

Former FBI agent Patrick Steven Yaroch has pleaded guilty to wire fraud and money laundering after stealing about $2.47 million in cryptocurrency, according to the US Department of Justice. He used access to wallets whose credentials the bureau had collected during its own investigations. The case was heard in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, according to Decrypt.

How the scheme worked

Yaroch worked in the FBI's Boston Division from 2017 to early 2025, then moved to the bureau's Counterintelligence and Espionage Division, where he had access to FBI systems holding crypto credentials gathered in investigations. Prosecutors say that beginning no later than December 2024, he made about 100 unauthorized transfers using credentials from 35 separate FBI investigations. He swapped the stolen funds into other cryptocurrencies and ran them through further transactions to hide their origin, and used some of the money to pay off credit cards, a car loan and other debts.

The stolen funds came from wallets controlled by subjects of other investigations, by nation-state actors, and from at least one wallet the FBI had created for an operation. According to prosecutors, his actions compromised several investigations into criminal groups and nation-state adversaries, as well as sources and methods used in foreign intelligence collection.

Confession and seized assets

According to an FBI affidavit, Yaroch came forward himself. He said he had become frustrated that the bureau "could not or would not act" against an adversary's crypto accounts. In his initial statements, he said he had made 10 to 12 transfers worth under $1 million, well below the figures in his plea agreement.

Agents searching his home seized a Trezor hardware wallet, three passports and a slip of paper with seed phrasesСид-фразаSeed phrase is a sequence of 12–24 words from which a crypto wallet generates private keys and restores access to funds.. His Kraken account held about $188,600, mostly in US dollars and USDCUSDCUSDC (USD Coin) is a stablecoin issued at a 1:1 ratio to the US dollar and backed by cash reserves and short-term US Treasury bonds.. Another $933,800 was placed in Suilend, a lending protocol on the Sui network. Agents transferred about $925,000 to government-controlled wallets, while roughly $165,600 held in fiat on Kraken could not be moved the same way.

Sentencing

Yaroch faces up to 20 years in prison. Sentencing is scheduled for March 4, 2027.