TECHNOMALIST
An FBI supervisory special agent assigned to the Counterintelligence and Espionage Division has been arrested and charged with stealing roughly $1 million in cryptocurrency, according to an affidavit filed in the Eastern District of Virginia. The agent, Patrick Steven Yaroch, is accused of accessing digital wallets connected to a foreign adversary investigation and then consulting ChatGPT about how to invest the funds, move abroad, and secure residency in an EU country.
Yaroch, who held a Top Secret security clearance with SCI access, had worked on a single adversarial nation—reported by NBC News to be Russia—from 2017 to 2025 as part of the FBI’s Boston division. The theft required no technical hacking, the affidavit indicates. In November 2024, Yaroch researched how cryptocurrency wallets work, created his own, searched internal FBI records for the relevant accounts, and memorized recovery seed phrases. He then made 10 to 12 transfers to his personal wallet. No encryption was broken; his clearance gave him direct access to the sensitive information.
The alleged crime came to light only when Yaroch self-reported in July 2026, roughly 18 months later. He contacted a Justice Department colleague over the messaging app Signal, asking to meet. At FBI headquarters the following day, Yaroch reportedly broke down, calling the situation “eating him up inside” and expressing a desire to return the money. He filed an online self-report and, when agents came to his Ashburn, Virginia, home that evening, told them bluntly that he had “messed up.”
Yaroch’s stated motive, as described in the affidavit, was not financial greed. He claimed growing frustration that the FBI could not or would not take action against the accounts and said he was “spinning out of control” at the time, deciding to act on his own. However, after initially cooperating and volunteering a paper containing his wallet seed phrases, he later asked for that document back and declined to continue the interview without a lawyer. Agents obtained warrants and, with SWAT support, searched his home on July 31. They recovered an iPhone, a Trezor hardware wallet, the handwritten seed phrases, a Portuguese power of attorney dated June 15, and three passports—one diplomatic.
Evidence from Yaroch’s phone reveals a detailed AI-assisted plan. On May 28, he asked ChatGPT how to invest or spend about $1 million to maximize profit. On June 4, he queried what a person with roughly $1 million should do to leave the United States and become an EU resident or citizen. On June 17, he asked about visa requirements for Americans transiting through Turkey, and on June 26, he sought help drafting an email about a job and life in Greece. Prosecutors also point to a power of attorney authorizing two Portuguese lawyers to register him for tax purposes and unreported travel to Germany in May, Portugal later that month, and Grenada in early July—all violations of bureau reporting rules.
The stolen funds were moved in unpredictable ways. On July 23, five days before his confession, Yaroch transferred about $1.02 million into Suilend, a lending protocol on the Sui blockchain, using the Slush wallet app, which he then deleted. He told agents he chose the service because he liked its logo: a water droplet. When agents examined the position, it was worth $933,756, about 8% less than a week earlier. A separate Kraken account held $188,570, including $5,000 in a token called Squid and $1.67 in Bitcoin. Authorities ultimately moved $925,426 into government wallets, leaving around $165,582 in dollars that could not be transferred.
Yaroch is charged under federal statutes covering interstate transportation and receipt of stolen goods, not espionage, computer fraud, or theft of government property. The wallets did not belong to the government, a distinction that may shape the legal proceedings. The case also highlights potential gaps in how federal agencies secure cryptocurrency holdings connected to investigations. In this instance, the alleged theft went undetected for more than a year until Yaroch came forward, raising questions about whether a broader review of internal protocols will follow.
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