Former FBI Agent Pleads Guilty to Stealing $2.47 Million in Crypto From Investigations

Brief

By Dextape Desk · November 6, 2026

A former FBI employee admitted in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, to stealing about $2.47 million in digital currency using wallet login details the bureau had collected during investigations. Patrick Steven Yaroch, 37, of Ashburn, Virginia, pleaded guilty to wire fraud and money laundering, and sentencing is set for March 4, 2027. Prosecutors say he made roughly 100 transfers using credentials tied to 35 FBI investigations, including wallets of investigation subjects, adversarial nation-state actors and one wallet the bureau created for an operation. He converted the coins into other digital assets and used further transactions to disguise their source, and the office said he used some of the funds to cover credit card, car and loan debts.

Why it matters: It shows an insider with access to wallet credentials gathered in investigations drained them, highlighting risks in how law enforcement stores crypto keys.

Summary by Dextape, based on reporting by Bitcoin Magazine. Machine-written from Bitcoin Magazine’s report and checked against it · How Dextape writes