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FBI Supervisory Agent Arrested for Stealing $1 Million in Cryptocurrency from Seized Wallets
Patrick Steven Yarmoch, a supervisory special agent at FBI headquarters with top-secret clearance, was arrested on July 31 after allegedly stealing approximately $1 million in cryptocurrency from wallets of people under FBI investigation. He made as many as a dozen transfers to himself using keys he obtained from FBI systems, according to CoinDesk's reporting.
Patrick Steven Yarmoch, a supervisory special agent at FBI headquarters in Washington's counterintelligence and espionage division, was arrested on July 31 after allegedly stealing approximately $1 million in cryptocurrency from wallets of people he had investigated, according to CoinDesk's reporting. Yarmoch held a top-secret security clearance and worked out of the FBI's main office before his arrest.
A court filing dated August 1 was submitted to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. According to reporting, Yarmoch allegedly made as many as a dozen transfers to himself from the seized accounts, using cryptocurrency keys he obtained from FBI systems. He turned himself in to agency colleagues and admitted to digging the keys from FBI systems to execute the transfers, per CoinDesk's sources.
Yarmoch was suspended briefly before being fired and arrested. He had previously worked for years out of Boston in a national-security unit investigating an unnamed adversary nation. He was a resident of Ashburn, Virginia, and is currently in detention in Alexandria, Virginia.
Yarmoch used accounts with Kraken and Suilend, a decentralized finance ecosystem for the Sui blockchain, via a Slush wallet to handle the digital assets, according to CoinDesk's reporting. The SEC and FBI's handling of seized cryptocurrency, including the storage and access controls, have not been publicly described in detail by the agencies.
An FBI search of Yarmoch's computer and phone records revealed AI app queries, including a question about how to leave the United States with a bucket of $1 million and become a resident or citizen of an EU country. The AI app allegedly recommended Portugal as a favored destination. Investigators located travel plans for Yarmoch and his family to go to Portugal the following month. Yarmoch had also taken recent unreported trips to Germany, Portugal, and Grenada in violation of FBI rules, according to CoinDesk's reporting.
The arrest represents a high-profile breach of internal controls over crypto evidence at a premier federal law enforcement agency. The details of Yarmoch's defense, legal representation, or his response to the charges have not been reported.
A high-ranking FBI counterintelligence officer with access to seized digital assets allegedly exploited his position to enrich himself, raising questions about internal controls over crypto evidence held by federal agencies.
The case raises immediate questions about how the FBI stores and controls access to cryptocurrency seized in investigations, and what safeguards exist to prevent similar insider theft. Watch for the court proceedings in the Eastern District of Virginia and any public disclosure of internal FBI security reviews on crypto evidence handling. The premise holds unless Yarmoch's defense challenges the facts of the case itself.
And that's the way it is.
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