An FBI agent who once hunted foreign threats is now accused of quietly raiding a suspect’s crypto stash for himself, the Wall Street Journal reports. Court documents say supervisory counterintelligence agent Patrick Yaroch admitted to taking roughly $1 million in cryptocurrency from accounts tied to an overseas target in a US investigation—access he allegedly gained using passcodes obtained during the probe. He reportedly confessed last week, and told a Justice Department employee the conduct was “eating him up inside” and that he’d made 10 to 12 withdrawals beginning in 2024 or 2025.
The affidavit says Yaroch claimed frustration that the bureau wouldn’t move against “adversarial” foreign crypto accounts and that he’d been “spinning out of control.” The adversarial nation in question has not been identified, but sources tell NBC News it is Russia. Yaroch was allegedly upset he couldn’t do more to disrupt what he saw as illicit use of the crypto accounts, CNN reports. Investigators say a wallet linked to him held about $1 million, though he allegedly told authorities he wasn’t sure how much was taken because it was mixed with his own assets. His ChatGPT history also drew attention: in May and June, he asked how to invest $1 million and how to use that sum to leave the US and obtain residency in the EU. Yaroch has been fired and charged with interstate transfer of stolen goods; he has not yet been charged with theft of cryptocurrency.