An FBI supervisory special agent allegedly stole more than $925,000 in cryptocurrency from wallets belonging to an adversarial nation, according to court documents unsealed this week. Patrick Yaroch, who was fired from the bureau on July 31, now faces two felony charges, each carrying a maximum of 10 years in prison.
How the funds were moved
Yaroch transferred the money — $925,426.07 — from the adversarial nation's wallets to his own personal wallets over numerous transactions, prosecutors say. Most of the funds were in stablecoins, though he also held a small amount of Bitcoin in his Kraken account. The exact method of the transfers hasn't been detailed in public filings, but the sheer number of transactions suggests a deliberate effort to obscure the trail.
Why he did it
Yaroch was frustrated that the FBI could not take action against the adversarial nation's cryptocurrency accounts, according to the complaint. That frustration apparently drove him to act on his own. The nation itself has not been named in court documents — prosecutors refer to it only as an adversarial state. Yaroch later confessed to a Department of Justice employee, which triggered the investigation and his eventual firing.
What happens now
Yaroch's ChatGPT history reportedly showed he had considered retiring in Portugal, though no travel plans were confirmed. He was charged with two felonies: theft of government property and conversion of property. Each count carries up to a decade behind bars. A court date has not yet been set, but the case is being handled by the U.S. Attorney's Office. For now, the adversarial nation's crypto remains unaccounted for — and the FBI has a former agent awaiting trial.
