A former FBI agent admitted taking nearly $2.5 million in crypto from wallets of fraud victims and suspects, using passphrases found in the FBI's own case files.
A former FBI agent has pleaded guilty to stealing nearly $2.5 million in cryptocurrency from people his own agency was investigating. Patrick Steven Yaroch, 37, took the money from wallets belonging to fraud victims and suspects, including nation-state hackers, according to the Justice Department.
Yaroch worked on a national security squad at the FBI Boston Division from 2017 to 2025. From February 2025 to July 2026, he was a supervisory special agent in the FBI's Counterintelligence and Espionage Division. He reported the theft himself on July 29 and was placed on leave. He was arrested and fired on July 31, 2026. He pleaded guilty to wire fraud and money laundering.
A crypto wallet is protected by a passphrase, a string of words that unlocks it. Whoever has the passphrase can move the money. Yaroch admitted he got passphrases from the FBI's case management systems and another platform used to share investigative data. He then moved funds into his own wallets.
Court documents show Yaroch planned to move his family to Portugal in early September. He had flight tickets to Lisbon and had signed power-of-attorney papers for two lawyers there to get a tax identification number. He had also asked ChatGPT where someone with about $1 million could live in the European Union.
Prosecutors say the theft compromised multiple FBI investigations involving nation-state adversaries and criminal groups. They also say it put at risk FBI sources and methods used in criminal investigations and foreign intelligence collection.
For everyday crypto owners, the lesson is simple. There is no bank to reverse a theft. Anyone who can read your passphrase can empty your wallet, whatever their job. Keep it private, and do not store it where others can read it.
Sentencing is set for March 4. Yaroch faces up to 20 years in prison for wire fraud and up to 20 years for money laundering.
Treat your crypto wallet passphrase like the key to a safe: keep it private and never store it where someone else can read it.
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