Former FBI Special Agent Patrick Steven Yaroch pleaded guilty to stealing nearly $2.5 million from the cryptocurrency wallets of fraud victims and hackers under investigation.
Former FBI Special Agent Patrick Steven Yaroch pleaded guilty to stealing nearly $2.5 million from the cryptocurrency wallets of fraud victims and hackers under investigation.
Yaroch, 37, worked at the FBI's National Security Division in Boston from 2017 to 2025, and later as a manager in the Counterintelligence and Espionage Division at FBI headquarters, BleepingComputer reports .
According to the case file, the special agent used access to the FBI's internal case management systems and databases of investigative information. He copied seed phrases and passwords, then transferred funds from the wallets of suspects and victims to his own accounts.
In total, Yaroch made about 100 unauthorized transactions within 35 separate FBI investigations, embezzling $2,474,380.
To cover his tracks, the former official laundered money by exchanging it for other cryptocurrencies and paying off his own debts — closing loans and paying for a car.
The crime was exposed after Yaroch suddenly confessed to his colleagues at the Ministry of Justice on July 29, 2026. He was immediately suspended from work, fired, and arrested at his own home on July 31.
During the searches, it turned out that the former employee was preparing to flee with his family to Portugal: he bought tickets to Lisbon and issued powers of attorney for local lawyers. To choose a new country, he consulted the ChatGPT chatbot.
"If you had a "bucket of money" (about $1 million) and wanted to leave the US and get a residence permit or citizenship of an EU country, what would you do?" Yaroch asked the artificial intelligence, to which the bot recommended that he pay attention to Portugal.
The US Department of Justice emphasized that Yaroch's actions dealt a serious blow to national security - they compromised dozens of investigations against state-run hacking groups and criminal networks, and also revealed secret sources and methods of the FBI.
Sentencing is scheduled for March 4. The former agent faces up to 20 years in prison for wire fraud and up to another 20 years for money laundering.
