FBI Agent Arrested After Confessing He Stole $1 Million in Crypto From Russian Accounts He Was Investigating
A supervisory FBI special agent with top-secret security clearance was fired and arrested last week after he voluntarily confessed to stealing nearly $1 million in cryptocurrency from accounts linked to Russia that he had been investigating as part of his official duties.
How He Was Caught: He Turned Himself In
Patrick Steven Yaroch, a resident of Ashburn, Virginia, contacted a Justice Department employee he knew on July 29 and, according to the FBI’s own affidavit, “immediately started to break down as he told his story,” according to reporting cited by The Japan Times. Yaroch reportedly told the employee he’d made “very poor decisions related to cryptocurrency wallets” and decided to come forward because of the shame that was “eating him up inside.”
CNN reported that Yaroch had worked as part of the FBI’s national security investigative squad focused on an “adversarial nation” — a nation that two sources familiar with the matter told NBC News was Russia.
What He’s Accused of Doing
According to the FBI affidavit, Yaroch became aware of the cryptocurrency accounts in November 2024 during the course of his investigative work. He grew “frustrated” that the FBI “could not or would not act against adversarial cryptocurrency accounts,” according to court documents cited by NBC News.
Rather than continuing to work through official channels, Yaroch allegedly decided to act on his own. Starting in late 2024 or early 2025, he used his top-secret clearance to log into FBI systems and locate the cryptographic keys and passphrases needed to access the adversarial accounts, then initiated roughly 10 to 12 separate transfers into his own personal cryptocurrency wallet, totaling just under $1 million, according to the affidavit. He allegedly told investigators plainly: “Yaroch said that he went into FBI systems and found keys needed to transfer money from wallets to himself.”
To move and manage the funds, Yaroch reportedly used accounts with the exchange Kraken as well as Suilend, a decentralized finance platform on the Sui blockchain, accessed through a Slush wallet, according to CoinDesk’s reporting.
Yaroch’s Background at the Bureau
Yaroch had been with the FBI since 2017 and most recently served as a supervisory special agent in the bureau’s counterintelligence and espionage division at its Washington headquarters, according to the Washington Examiner. Before that assignment, he spent years working out of the FBI’s Boston field office on a national-security investigative squad focused on the same adversarial nation referenced in the affidavit — the assignment during which he first came across the crypto accounts he’s now accused of raiding.
Signs He May Have Been Planning to Flee
Investigators found evidence suggesting Yaroch had been preparing for a life abroad. According to CoinDesk, a search of his computer and phone records turned up questions he’d posed to AI chatbots, including asking what steps he’d need to take if he “had a bucket of money (around $1 million)” and wanted to leave the United States to become a resident or citizen of a European Union country — to which the AI tool reportedly recommended Portugal.
Investigators also found travel plans and a Portuguese legal document during a search of Yaroch’s Ashburn home, according to the Denver Gazette. Agents seized $925,426.07 from Yaroch’s cryptocurrency wallets and accounts during that search, according to Patch’s reporting, along with his personal and diplomatic passports.
The Arrest and Charges
The FBI questioned Yaroch throughout the week following his initial confession before securing a search warrant for his home, which was executed on Friday, July 31 — the same day the bureau fired him and placed him under arrest, according to the Denver Gazette. He faces charges of interstate transportation of stolen goods, securities, and monies, and receipt of stolen goods, securities, and monies. Court records did not list an attorney representing him, though NBC News reported that a federal public defender representing Yaroch declined to comment.
Part of a Broader Pattern in the Intelligence Community
Yaroch’s arrest follows a separate, larger case involving a different agency just weeks earlier. In June, authorities arrested CIA official David Rush and accused him of stealing more than $40 million, allegedly converting the proceeds into gold bars, luxury watches, and other valuables, according to the Denver Gazette and Washington Examiner. Taken together, the two cases have drawn attention to how intelligence officials with privileged access to sensitive financial and investigative systems have exploited that access for personal gain.
CNN’s reporting also noted a broader institutional wrinkle raised by the case: the FBI regularly gathers extensive intelligence on cryptocurrency accounts allegedly tied to criminal and state actors in countries including Russia and China, but decisions about when and how to act on that intelligence — whether to formally seize the accounts or use them to gather further intelligence — are typically made on a case-by-case basis, a discretionary process Yaroch is accused of having bypassed entirely on his own.
FAQ
How did investigators find out about the theft? Yaroch turned himself in voluntarily, confessing to a Justice Department employee he knew on July 29 before the FBI’s own investigation began.
How much money did Yaroch allegedly steal? Just under $1 million in cryptocurrency, moved through roughly 10 to 12 separate transfers starting in late 2024 or early 2025.
Whose accounts did he allegedly steal from? Cryptocurrency accounts linked to Russia that he had access to as part of an FBI investigation into an “adversarial nation,” according to sources who spoke with NBC News.
What charges does he face? Interstate transportation of stolen goods, securities, and monies, and receipt of stolen goods, securities, and monies.
Is this connected to any other recent cases involving federal officials and cryptocurrency theft? It follows a separate case from June in which CIA official David Rush was arrested and accused of stealing more than $40 million, which he allegedly converted into gold bars and luxury goods — though the two cases are not reported to be directly connected.
Conclusion
Yaroch’s case stands out both for the unusual manner of his capture — a voluntary confession driven, by his own account, by guilt — and for what it reveals about the discretionary gray zone federal agents operate in when they have visibility into sensitive foreign financial activity without formal authorization to act on it. With formal charges now filed and no attorney yet listed in court records, the case is likely to draw continued scrutiny both as a criminal matter and as a case study in oversight gaps within federal counterintelligence operations.
Sources: CNN, NBC News, Bloomberg, CoinDesk, The Denver Gazette, The Washington Examiner, Patch, The Japan Times (reporting dated August 3-4, 2026).