FBI agent stole $2.47m in crypto from criminal wallets

In this article A former FBI supervisor stole from cryptocurrency wallets involved in 35 FBI investigations He planned to use the proceeds to finance a new life in Portugal He turned himself in after confessing to a former colleague Law enforcement officers are trusted to handle sensitive evidence properly. A 37-year-old former FBI supervisor used that access to steal millions in cryptocurrency. Patrick Steven Yaroch pleaded guilty on November 5 to wire fraud and money laundering after stealing approximately $2.47 million from cryptocurrency wallets linked to FBI investigations. He stole the money from wallets held by people the FBI was investigating, which included adversarial nation-state actors. Starting no later than December 2024, he made around 100 transfers using credentials tied to 35 separate investigations. The FBI’s search affidavit says that Yaroch accessed FBI systems containing wallet seed phrases and memorized them. A seed phrase is a series of words, commonly 12 or 24, used to restore access to a cryptocurrency wallet. Anyone with the seed phrase can potentially control the funds. He then used the memorized phrases to transfer funds to a personal wallet on his own device. He subsequently swapped assets into different currencies and made further transactions to try and hide their origins. According to the Department of Justice (DOJ), his actions compromised multiple investigations. The affidavit also revealed that Yaroch had asked ChatGPT how to invest a million dollars, along with advice on where to live in Europe. It suggested Portugal, and he began the process of setting up a life there. Caught by a case of cold feet According to the affidavit, he approached a former DOJ colleague to confess because his actions were “eating him up inside.” The employee urged him to self-report, which he did. The FBI placed him on leave and then terminated his employment two days later. They showed up at his home with a warrant and seized assets, including his phone, which had access to a Kraken cryptocurrency account. They also seized a piece of paper containing the seed phrases for his own account. More law enforcement corruption Yaroch’s justification for his initial actions was frustration that the FBI wasn’t acting quickly enough against the wallets’ criminal owners. So he decided to “take matters into his own hands,” according to the affidavit. But according to the DOJ, he also used some of the proceeds to cover personal debts, including credit cards, car payments, and other loans. This isn’t an isolated incident. In December 2024, former Secret Service agent Anthony Joseph Evans pleaded guilty to stealing cryptocurrency worth $56,000 from a hardware wallet held in the agency’s secure evidence vault. In 2015, former Secret Service agent Shaun W. Bridges also pleaded guilty to money laundering and obstruction of justice after stealing bitcoin during the investigation of Silk Road, a dark web marketplace used to sell illegal drugs and other contraband. He used another person’s administrator account to reset users’ passwords and move bitcoin into a wallet he controlled. The stolen bitcoin was worth approximately $350,000 at the time; he later sold it for $820,000. “One of the best cybersecurity suites on the planet.” According to CNET. Read their review → About the author Danny Bradbury has been a journalist specialising in technology since 1989 and a freelance writer since 1994. He covers a broad variety of technology issues for audiences ranging from consumers through to software developers and CIOs. He also ghostwrites articles for many C-suite business executives in the technology sector. He hails from the UK but now lives in Western Canada.