FBI agent pleads guilty to stealing $2.4 million in crypto from nation-state hackers

A senior FBI official pleaded guilty to stealing millions in cryptocurrency from wallets controlled by nation-state hackers and theft victims. 

Patrick Steven Yaroch, 37, is facing up to 20 years in prison on wire fraud and money laundering charges after admitting to using his position on an FBI investigative squad to steal more than $2.4 million in cryptocurrency to cover his debts. 

Yaroch was an FBI Supervisory Special Agent who worked at FBI Headquarters within the Counterintelligence and Espionage Division — with his work focusing on an unnamed nation-state.

He used his seniority to access FBI systems that had the codes and passwords necessary to take cryptocurrency from at least two adversarial nations as well as 10 victims of crimes. In total, he conducted 100 transfers from 79 wallets starting in December 2024. The wallets were connected to 35 different FBI investigations.  

Yaroch had hundreds of thousands of dollars in credit card debt, loans and car payments. He paid off several large loans. The Justice Department gained access to his ChatGPT conversations, which showed he planned to buy a vineyard in Portugal and retire.

Yaroch began to make legal arrangements in Portugal and bought plane tickets to the country for him, his wife and his child slated for September. But he ended up confessing to the theft to a DOJ employee in July. 

Yaroch told the DOJ employee, who he knew from a previous job, that he was angry about an investigation of a suspect from an unnamed adversarial nation. Yaroch "became frustrated when he could not do more to disrupt this individual's use of cryptocurrency.”

"Yaroch decided to tell [the DOJ employee] about his actions because of the shame and he knew what he did was wrong. Yaroch said it was ‘eating him up inside’ and he wanted to ‘get it off his chest,’” prosecutors said. 

Further investigation revealed Yaroch had stolen millions and was often indiscriminate in his theft. 

The Justice Department said his thefts ranged from 81 cents to over $580,000 in another fraudulent transfer. 

Prosecutors said Yaroch's misuse of the cryptocurrency credentials that he stole from FBI systems “compromised multiple FBI investigations related to both criminal groups and nation state adversaries.”

His actions also exposed the FBI's investigations to the targets who controlled the wallets, compromising their sources and methods.

Yaroch will be sentenced in March.