Original report published by The Block on November 8, 2026, at 04:58:45 UTC+8.
Former FBI agent Patrick Steven Yaroch pleaded guilty to wire fraud and money laundering after admitting he stole about $2.47 million in cryptocurrency from wallets connected to 35 FBI investigations, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.
Yaroch, 37, of Ashburn, Virginia, entered the plea on the Thursday preceding the report. He pleaded guilty to one count of each offense, with each count carrying a maximum prison term of 20 years. Sentencing was scheduled for March 4, 2027.
The case involved at least 79 wallets, including wallets belonging to crime victims and others controlled by two unnamed adversarial nation states, according to court documents.
FBI database searches enabled the thefts
In a signed statement of facts, Yaroch admitted searching FBI databases—including a classified system—for cryptocurrency credentials beginning no later than December 2024. He used those credentials to make about 100 transfers.
Most affected wallets belonged to people under FBI investigation. At least 10 transfers came from crime victims’ wallets, while at least one involved a wallet the FBI had funded for an operation. Individual thefts ranged from 81 cents to more than $580,000. The filing described Yaroch as “indiscriminate” and said he repeatedly checked FBI systems afterward to see whether the thefts had been detected.
The filing did not identify the two adversarial nation states. NBC News reported in August, citing two sources, that the nation referenced in the original complaint was Russia.
Yaroch joined the FBI’s Boston Division in 2017, serving on a squad focused on one of those two countries. From February 2025 until July 31, 2026, he was a supervisory special agent in the Counterintelligence and Espionage Division at FBI headquarters.
Funds moved through crypto services and bank accounts
According to the filing, Yaroch had taken out more than $100,000 in loans during 2024 and owed more than $45,000 on credit cards before the scheme began.
One documented sequence started on November 6, 2025, when he used credentials from a criminal case file to empty two wallets into his own bitcoin wallet. Over the following weeks, he routed bitcoin through a swap service with privacy features, converted some funds into Monero and then Solana, and moved funds through a Sui wallet to his Kraken account.
Between November 25, 2025, and January 13, 2026, he transferred about $93,082 to a TD Bank account. The filing said he used the money to reduce debts, including roughly $30,176 in credit-card payments and $20,000 toward a Lexus.
Yaroch initially attributed the thefts to frustration. Prosecutors disputed that characterization in an August filing, saying he “should not be viewed as a selfless Robin Hoodesque figure.”
Portugal plans and pretrial release
Court filings also described Yaroch’s preparations for a possible move abroad. On June 4, he asked ChatGPT about leaving the United States for a European Union country with about $1 million. The response discussed his wife and child, an interest in a two-to-five-hectare estate and age-worthy red wine, and recommended Portugal.
On June 15, he granted two Portuguese lawyers power of attorney to register him with the country’s tax authority. He also arranged a September trip linked to a planned vineyard purchase. Prosecutors said he had failed to report a separate 10-day trip in May, during which he flew to Germany and returned from Portugal.
Prosecutors sought pretrial detention, citing about $160,000 remaining on Kraken and possible Espionage Act charges. Those charges were never filed. U.S. District Judge Anthony Trenga instead released Yaroch on a $50,000 bond with location monitoring and conditions that included a prohibition on using video game consoles.
Recovery, restitution and forfeiture
An August filing described difficulties locating the funds. Yaroch initially agreed to provide paper that appeared to contain his wallet’s seed phrase, but requested it back after agents advised him of his right to remain silent and the potential use of his statements in a criminal case.
When agents located the wallet he had identified, $1.02 million had already moved out. Yaroch subsequently admitted the funds were on lending platform Suilend and helped agents reinstall a wallet application he had deleted from his phone.
Under the plea agreement, Yaroch must pay at least $2.4 million in restitution and faces a forfeiture judgment of at least $2.4 million. He also agreed to surrender:
- 17,990.67 USDC and about 1.38 million SUI seized on July 31; The Block valued the SUI at roughly $1.2 million at the time of reporting.
- The contents of his TD Bank, Charles Schwab, Kraken and BloFin accounts.
- Any future proceeds from books, films, articles or interviews about his FBI work or the case.
Yaroch acknowledged that the scheme’s full proceeds “are not available.” He must also participate in interviews with Justice Department and FBI officials and submit any such work about his FBI service or case to the FBI for review before publication.
Earlier charges and a separate custody case
The Block previously reported that Yaroch was fired on July 31 and charged in August with transporting and receiving stolen money. At that stage, the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General said he had moved about $1 million through roughly 10 transfers and had reported himself to two Justice Department employees on July 29.
The report also noted a separate case involving John Daghita, whom the FBI arrested in Saint Martin earlier in 2026 over the alleged theft of more than $46 million in cryptocurrency from the U.S. Marshals Service. Onchain investigator ZachXBT alleged that Daghita is the son of an executive at a contractor helping the agency manage seized crypto.
A federal grand jury in Alexandria indicted Daghita on 15 counts in March. According to local broadcaster RCI, a French appeals court in Guadeloupe approved his extradition to the United States in May. His court docket listed an arraignment for November 12 in Alexandria.