Patrick Steven Yaroch, a former FBI supervisory special agent from Ashburn, Virginia, pleaded guilty on Nov. 5 to wire fraud and money laundering after draining nearly $2.5 million, or about $2.47 million, in cryptocurrency from wallets connected to FBI investigations. Court papers say that before the money ran out he also asked ChatGPT how to maximize investment profit and where in the European Union to settle. The chatbot’s suggestion led him to try to buy a vineyard in Portugal.
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The plea ends the first phase of a case that began with a smaller number. Yaroch told FBI colleagues in July about roughly 10 transfers worth about $1 million, and the plea tally is about ten times the transfer count.
How a counterintelligence agent reached the wallets
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia, in its plea announcement, says Yaroch worked on a Boston Division squad focused on an adversarial nation-state from 2017 to early 2025, then moved to the Counterintelligence and Espionage Division at FBI headquarters, where he stayed until July 31, 2026. In both roles he could reach systems holding cryptocurrency credentials the bureau had collected.
The thefts began no later than December 2024, per the agreed statement of facts. He made about 100 transfers using credentials tied to 35 separate investigations, totaling $2,474,380.66, and took from other subjects, from wallets controlled by adversarial nation-state actors, and from at least one wallet the FBI itself had set up for an operation. First Assistant U.S. Attorney Theophani Stamos and Daniel Wierzbicki, who leads the counterintelligence division of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, announced the plea. Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles accepted it in case 1:26-CR-208. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kathleen Robeson and Russell Carlberg are prosecuting, with help from the National Security Division’s National Security Cyber Section and the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General.
From ten transfers to 79 wallets
The earliest public account was far smaller. A Justice Department Inspector General notice dated Aug. 4 said Yaroch was arrested on a criminal complaint alleging that, on about 10 occasions, he moved crypto from adversary accounts into a personal wallet, for a total of about $1 million. It added that he reported the activity himself to two department employees on July 29. Later reporting by Unchained, drawing on an FBI affidavit filed in court, says agents found about $1.02 million had moved into a Suilend account around July 23. The same coverage says he consented to agents sweeping about $925,426 into government wallets. By that count the total he ultimately admitted is about 2.5 times the dollar figure he first described.
The Block, which reviewed the plea papers, reports that Yaroch was fired and charged on July 31, was released on a $50,000 bond with location monitoring, and puts the haul at at least 79 wallets and says the filing calls the thefts indiscriminate, ranging from 81 cents to more than $580,000. Some wallets belonged to crime victims. That outlet also reports he searched FBI databases, including a classified one, for credentials.
The ChatGPT questions and the Portugal plan
The Justice Department’s release says Yaroch meant to use the proceeds to start a new life abroad. FOX 5 DC’s coverage adds that the prompts concerned maximizing investments and where to live in Europe, and that the chatbot proposed a vineyard in Portugal. The Block’s account of the plea papers gives dates and detail: on June 4 he asked what he could do with about $1 million if he left the U.S. for an EU country, Portugal came back as the “top choice,” with the chatbot citing his family, a desire for an estate and an interest in “age-worthy red wine,” and on June 15 he gave two Portuguese lawyers power of attorney to register him with the country’s tax authority. A September trip tied to the vineyard was planned. Meanwhile, between Nov. 25, 2025 and Jan. 13, 2026, about $93,082 moved through his accounts to pay credit cards, car loans and other debts.
Damage to FBI cases and the March 4 sentencing
According to the statement of facts, the thefts compromised multiple FBI investigations of criminal groups and nation-state adversaries, hindered employees’ ability to carry out public-safety and national-security work, and exposed sources and methods used in foreign intelligence collection and criminal investigations. The plea agreement, as The Block describes it, requires restitution and a forfeiture judgment of at least $2.4 million each, plus surrender of seized crypto and the contents of four brokerage and exchange accounts. Sentencing is set for March 4, 2027, and Yaroch faces up to 20 years in prison. The agreement also directs any future earnings from books, films or interviews about his FBI work or this case to the government, and requires him to submit such work to the FBI for review. He has agreed to be interviewed by Justice Department and FBI officials.
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.
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