Former FBI agent pleads guilty to stealing $2.47 million in seized crypto

Patrick Steven Yaroch used seed phrases from 35 FBI investigations to drain digital assets while planning a move to Portugal A former FBI supervisory special agent has admitted to stealing crypto from the cases he was supposed to be investigating. Patrick Steven Yaroch, 37, pleaded guilty to wire fraud and money laundering on November 6, 2026. Court filings put the total at $2,474,380.66, or approximately $2.47 million. Somewhere along the way he was also reportedly planning a fresh start in Portugal, which is a bold retirement plan for someone whose day job involved tracing stolen funds. How the scheme worked The method was simple, which is part of what makes it unsettling. During FBI investigations, Yaroch gained access to wallet credentials and seed phrases belonging to people tied to those cases. A seed phrase is essentially the master key to a crypto wallet. It is a string of words that lets whoever holds it recreate the wallet and move its funds anywhere, no bank approval or second signature required. Yaroch used that privileged access to carry out around 100 illicit transfers. Those transfers were linked to 35 separate criminal investigations. The losses were not limited to ...