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FBI agent accused of stealing $1M in crypto, asked ChatGPT about escape

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FBI agent accused of stealing $1M in crypto, asked ChatGPT about escape

2026-08-03 22:35 UTCBy AlphaScala Research DeskSource reporting: Crypto newsEditorial standards1 views

FBI agent accused of stealing $1M in crypto, asked ChatGPT about escape

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A former FBI agent allegedly stole $1M in crypto from adversarial wallets, mixed it with personal funds, and used ChatGPT to plan a move to Portugal, prosecutors say.

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A former FBI supervisory special agent allegedly stole roughly $1 million in cryptocurrency from wallets described in court documents as “adversarial cryptocurrency accounts,” then mixed the proceeds with personal funds and asked ChatGPT how to relocate to Europe.

Federal agents arrested Seth Yaroch on Friday. The charges include interstate transportation of stolen goods and receipt of stolen goods, securities, and money, according to an affidavit filed Aug. 1.

The affidavit said Yaroch discovered private keys that gave him access to the wallets. He allegedly used those keys to transfer funds to himself through about a dozen transactions starting in late 2024 or early 2025.

Yaroch told investigators he was frustrated by his inability to stop people connected to an “adversarial nation” from using cryptocurrency. Prosecutors alleged he transferred the assets for his own benefit rather than through any authorized seizure or forfeiture process.

The total amount taken was roughly $1 million, the affidavit said. Court documents did not name the specific digital assets or identify the original wallets.

Yaroch later told a Department of Justice employee he had made “some very poor decisions related to cryptocurrency wallets,” and during a separate interview he acknowledged to federal agents that he had made a serious mistake.

Investigators found that Yaroch mixed the disputed cryptocurrency with his own funds and used ChatGPT to explore what to do with the money. The questions covered how to spend or invest $1 million and whether he should leave the United States for a European country, according to the affidavit.

The chatbot’s response, included in the affidavit, suggested Portugal based on personal details Yaroch had shared – his child, his wife, the desire for a 2-5 hectare estate, interest in age-worthy red wine, and the goal of actually living there rather than just owning property.

“Given everything you’ve told me – [name of Yaroch’s child], your wife, the desire for a 2-5 hectare estate, interest in age-worthy red wine, and the goal of actually living there rather than just owning a property – I would not start by chasing citizenship,” the chatbot responded.

Authorities said Yaroch purchased a ticket to Portugal departing Sept. 3, along with a return flight. The court filing does not indicate ChatGPT knew the funds were allegedly stolen, nor does it establish that Yaroch acted on the chatbot’s financial suggestions.

Yaroch worked as a supervisory special agent in the FBI headquarters’ Counterintelligence and Espionage Division. He previously served in the agency’s Boston field office. The role may explain how he encountered the wallet keys and assets described in the filing, though the affidavit does not publicly detail how the FBI obtained the wallets or what investigation they were connected to.

The FBI fired Yaroch on July 31. The charges remain allegations; he has not been convicted.

The case follows other recent cryptocurrency security incidents. Coldcard faced scrutiny over a five-year seed-generation flaw linked to suspected attacks involving more than 1,800 BTC across over 5,200 potential victim addresses, with Galaxy Research cautioning that those figures are on-chain estimates and do not confirm a single attacker. Separately, Ostium said an attacker compromised its off-chain infrastructure and manipulated BTC-USD price reports to drain 23.75 million USDC from its liquidity vault, though the protocol said its smart contracts and governance multisigs were not breached.

Yaroch’s case centers on alleged insider theft by a U.S. law-enforcement employee rather than an external technical exploit. It shows how access to wallet keys can bypass other safeguards when custody procedures fail, according to the affidavit's description of the alleged scheme.