FBI supervisory agent arrested for allegedly stealing nearly $1M in cryptocurrency

An FBI Supervisory Special Agent was apprehended for allegedly misappropriating approximately $1 million in digital assets from adversarial foreign accounts, according to court records unsealed on Monday.

Patrick Steven Yaroch, who held a Top Secret clearance and worked in counterintelligence, admitted to investigators that he accessed FBI systems to retrieve keys and transfer funds to his personal wallets.

“I took matters into my own hands,” Yaroch said, citing frustration with the Bureau’s perceived inability to disrupt adversarial assets. The agent conducted these unauthorized transfers approximately 10 to 12 times, co-mingling the stolen cryptocurrency with his personal assets.

Escalation and escape planning

The investigation revealed that Yaroch was actively preparing to flee the US.

Court documents indicate he used an artificial intelligence platform to research relocating a $1 million "bucket of money" to the European Union, eventually targeting Portugal. Investigators discovered he had already obtained power of attorney for lawyers in Lisbon to secure a tax identification number and had booked a family trip for September.

Yaroch also violated multiple security protocols by conducting unreported foreign travel to Germany and Grenada earlier this year. The scheme began to unravel on July 29, when the agent met a Department of Justice employee and confessed his actions, saying the shame was "eating him up inside."

Following a search of his residence in Ashburn, Virginia, Yaroch voluntarily returned $925,426.07 to government-controlled wallets. He currently faces federal charges for the interstate transportation and receipt of stolen goods.

Yaroch was placed on administrative leave on July 29, and his employment was terminated by FBI on July 31.