Ex-FBI Agent Pleads Guilty to Stealing $2.47M in Seized Crypto

A former FBI supervisory special agent has pleaded guilty to wire fraud and money laundering after stealing $2,474,380.66 in digital assets from cases he was investigating. Court filings put the number precisely: just under $2.5 million. Patrick Steven Yaroch, 37, entered the plea on November 6, 2026.

Yaroch held a rank that carries oversight duties and privileged access to case material. He used it. According to the filings, he obtained wallet credentials and seed phrases belonging to individuals tied to active FBI investigations, then carried out roughly 100 illicit transfers across 35 separate criminal cases.

A seed phrase is the master key to a crypto wallet. Whoever holds those words can recreate the wallet and move the funds anywhere — no bank, no second signature, no waiting period. That power is exactly what internal controls at the Bureau apparently failed to contain.

How long did the scheme run?

The thefts began no later than December 2024 and continued until his arrest in late July 2026, giving Yaroch a run of well over a year. The guilty plea actually covers more ground than the original charges did — early filings cited smaller amounts, and prosecutors' first accounting understated the scope of the theft.

The losses didn't stop at suspects. At least 10 crime victims held funds among the stolen assets — people who expected the FBI to recover their money, not take a second bite of it.

One detail stands out even in a case this strange: Yaroch reportedly asked ChatGPT for advice on investing roughly $1 million and relocating to the EU. Original accounts of the case tie those plans to Portugal specifically. The broader picture is of an agent preparing an exit while still carrying a badge — a bold retirement plan for someone whose day job involved tracing stolen funds.

What has been recovered?

Investigators have clawed back a meaningful share of the total:

• Approximately $188,600 held on the Kraken exchange
• Around $933,800 pulled from Suilend, a decentralized lending protocol where users deposit crypto to earn yield or borrow against it
• A Trezor hardware wallet, along with its matching seed phrases

Together, the Kraken and Suilend recoveries account for roughly $1.12 million of the $2.47 million stolen. The hardware wallet seizure matters operationally: a Trezor stores keys offline, so seizing both the device and its phrases gives authorities direct control over whatever sits inside.

Kraken's role is worth pausing on. Regulated exchanges remain the choke point where stolen assets get identified and frozen — an on-chain record moves in minutes, but an exchange account can be pinned down.

Why did the FBI fire him first?

Yaroch was not a junior employee who stumbled into temptation. He held the rank of supervisory special agent. After surrendering to authorities — a step the record describes as following expressions of remorse — the FBI terminated him on July 31, 2026.

What does this change for crypto custody at law enforcement agencies? Traditional evidence sits in a locker with a sign-in sheet. Crypto lives on a blockchain, and an investigator holding a seed phrase wields the same power as the wallet's owner. Yaroch's case is what happens when that equivalence meets weak internal controls, and it will pressure agencies to tighten how seized credentials are logged, segmented and audited.

For the victims, the arithmetic is blunt. The gap between $2.47 million stolen and roughly $1.12 million recovered will shape how much they ultimately get back.

Sentencing is scheduled for March 4, 2027. Yaroch faces a maximum of 20 years in prison, though the final term rests with the court's assessment — and further asset tracing could still narrow the victims' shortfall before then.