(Ken Silva, Headline USA) A former FBI supervisory special agent has been arrested after admitting to the theft of roughly $1 million worth of cryptocurrency, according to court records.
A criminal complaint filed Saturday says that the former agent, Patrick Yaroch, admitted to his crimes to another Justice Department employee late last month—saying that he wanted to “get it off his chest.”
“YAROCH told DOJ EMPLOYEE 1 that he made some very poor decisions related to cryptocurrency wallets. YAROCH said that he went into FBI systems and found keys needed to transfer money from wallets to himself,” charging papers say.
“YAROCH began this activity in late 2024 or early 2025 while assigned to FBI BS. YAROCH investigated an individual from ADVERSERIAL NATION 1 and became frustrated when he could not do more to disrupt this individual’s use of cryptocurrency. YAROCH conducted transfers approximately 10-12 times. YAROCH did not know how much money was involved because it was co-mingled with his other personal assets, including capital gains, but it was under a million dollars.”
After confessing at FBI headquarters last Wednesday, Yaroch was placed on administrative leave. He was fired two days later, the same day agents searched his home.
During the search, Yaroch provided agents with access to his phone. On the phone, agents found his cryptocurrency accounts. Agents seized about $925,426 worth of crypto from his accounts. Another $165,582 remained in one of his accounts, with agents apparently unable to immediately transfer it because the funds were USD, according to court records.
According to court records, FBI agents also discovered that Yaroch had been making plans to travel to Portugal, where he eventually wanted to live. Yaroch even asked ChatGPT about living there.
Yaroch was arrested, and had a detention hearing scheduled for Tuesday. The Justice Department urged a judge to keep him jail, saying that he’s a flight risk and a danger to the community—his confession notwithstanding.
“By his own admission, he misused classified information multiple times during the past 18 months to commit crimes. In short, the defendant’s criminal conduct was not the result of a singular lapse in judgment, but rather repeated choices to break the law and abuse his position of trust within the government,” prosecutors said in a Tuesday detention memo.
Yaroch’s detention hearing was still pending at the time of this article’s publication.
Ken Silva is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
