FBI Agent Charged with Stealing Over $1 Million in Crypto

A former FBI supervisory special agent has been charged with stealing nearly $1 million in cryptocurrency from Russian targets. Patrick Steven Yaroch worked in the Boston Division of the FBI, where he was assigned to a national security squad investigating an individual linked to Russia. The investigation began after Yaroch contacted a Justice Department employee and admitted to mishandling cryptocurrency wallets.

Yaroch allegedly used his access to internal FBI holdings to search for wallet credentials and memorize seed phrases needed to access the accounts. He then transferred funds into his personal cryptocurrency wallet, approximately 10 to 12 times. The stolen sum was estimated by Yaroch to be less than $1 million.

The investigation found that Yaroch had moved approximately $1.02 million on or around July 23 into an account on Suilend, a decentralized lending platform. A preliminary review showed a balance of approximately $933,756 in that account. The FBI transferred cryptocurrency valued at approximately $925,426 into US government-controlled wallets.