A former FBI agent used internal bureau credentials to steal nearly $1M in crypto from an adversarial nation's wallets, court records allege. The case turned on a Signal confession.
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A former FBI supervisory special agent was charged after prosecutors said he used internal bureau systems to steal nearly $1 million in cryptocurrency from wallets connected to a foreign intelligence target.
Patrick Steven Yaroch faces a single count of interstate transportation of stolen property in a criminal complaint filed in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. The allegations have not been proven.
Yaroch joined the FBI around 2017, working on a national security squad in the Boston Division before moving to FBI headquarters' Counterintelligence and Espionage Division with a Top Secret clearance. He became frustrated, prosecutors allege, because he believed the bureau "could not or would not act" against crypto accounts tied to an adversarial nation. Some reports, citing people familiar with the case, identified that nation as Russia, a detail not confirmed in the publicly described affidavit.
Beginning in late 2024 or early 2025, Yaroch used wallet credentials obtained through the investigation to make roughly 10 to 12 unauthorized transfers, court documents show. He mixed some of that crypto with his own assets, moving funds through several wallets and platforms. Some landed on Suilend, a decentralized lending protocol on the Sui blockchain; authorities also traced assets to an account at Kraken.
A search of Yaroch's Virginia residence recovered electronic devices, wallet recovery phrases, and a Trezor hardware wallet. With his cooperation, investigators transferred roughly $925,426 into government-controlled wallets.
The case began after Yaroch contacted a Justice Department employee via Signal on July 28 and admitted making "very poor decisions related to cryptocurrency wallets," the records show. He later told officials the situation was "eating him up inside." The FBI placed him on leave, fired him, and arrested him on July 31.
The affidavit also notes searches in Yaroch's ChatGPT history. In May, he asked how to invest or spend $1 million to maximize returns; the chatbot suggested, among other ideas, a slower agricultural lifestyle in Portugal's Dão wine country. A later prompt asked what someone with $1 million should do to leave the US and obtain EU residency or citizenship. Investigators found Yaroch had booked round-trip travel to Portugal for September and authorized Portuguese lawyers to represent him before the country's tax authority.
Yaroch was temporarily remanded to US Marshals custody, with a detention hearing scheduled for Aug. 4 in Alexandria, Virginia. Interstate transportation of stolen property carries a potential sentence of up to 10 years in prison, depending on the final charges, a conviction or plea, and the judge's findings.
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