FBI supervisory agent arrested for moving roughly $1 million of crypto to personal account

Patrick Steven Yaroch, a supervisory special agent in the FBI’s counterintelligence and espionage division, was arrested on Friday and immediately dismissed from the bureau. Prosecutors allege he grew frustrated with the agency’s inability to disrupt an unnamed hostile nation’s crypto accounts and decided to divert roughly $1 million into his own wallet, executing ten to twelve transfers beginning in late 2024 or early 2025.

Using his top-secret clearance, he allegedly memorized passphrases for the foreign accounts and accessed them from the Boston field office. After contacting an anonymous Justice Department employee via Signal and confessing, agents obtained a warrant, raided his Ashburn residence, and confiscated electronics, passports and a Portuguese legal document granting power of attorney to local lawyers. Investigators also found that he failed to report prior travel to Portugal, Germany and Grenada, and had queried ChatGPT about how to invest the stolen funds. He is charged with interstate transportation and receipt of stolen goods, securities and monies, joining a recent wave of intelligence-community corruption cases, including a CIA official accused of stealing $40 million.