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FBI Agent Charged With Stealing $1M in Seized Crypto
An FBI agent allegedly stole $1M in seized crypto from adversarial nation wallets, then confessed. He faces two felony charges with up to 10 years each.
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A Federal Bureau of Investigation agent allegedly stole roughly $1 million in seized cryptocurrencies, then turned himself in, according to court documents unsealed this week.
Patrick Steven Yaroch, a supervisory special agent assigned to the FBI's Counterintelligence and Espionage Division at headquarters, claimed he was "frustrated that the FBI could not or would not act against adversarial cryptocurrency accounts," the affidavit filed in a Virginia district court said.
He then "took matters into his own hands," transferring $925,426.07 in crypto to personal wallets over numerous transactions, the document alleged.
Yaroch later told a Department of Justice employee what he had done, the court filings state. "Yaroch told DOJ employee 1 that he made some very poor decisions related to cryptocurrency wallets. Yaroch said that he went into FBI systems and found keys needed to transfer money from wallets to himself."
A motion for a detention order, made public Tuesday, added: "The weight of the evidence against the defendant is strong. He confessed to stealing the cryptocurrency from the adverse nations' wallets."