A former FBI counterintelligence agent has pleaded guilty to wire fraud and money laundering after admitting he stole nearly $2.5 million in cryptocurrency from wallets connected to investigations targeting adversarial nations and criminal activity. Prosecutors say Patrick Steven Yaroch exploited his access to FBI systems to move digital assets he was not authorized to handle, then used transfers and financial routing to obscure the origin and ownership of the funds.
According to a US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia news release, Yaroch, 37, admitted to conducting about 100 fraudulent transfers tied to 35 separate FBI investigations. The government stated the total proceeds from the scheme were $2,474,380.66.
