Patrick Steven Yaroch, an FBI agent based in Ashburn, Virginia, and counterintelligence supervisor with top secret clearance, stole nearly one million dollars in cryptocurrency from wallets linked to federal investigations targeting foreign adversaries. He used his legitimate access to obtain recovery phrases from these wallets and executed ten to twelve fraudulent transactions since late 2024. On July 28, 2026, he contacted a former colleague now working at the Justice Department to confess his actions, before reporting himself to the FBI security division. Agents seized approximately 925,000 dollars from his Kraken account and a lending position on the Suilend protocol during an authorized search the following day, before arresting him in the late afternoon. His downfall was partly due to his conversations with ChatGPT, where he asked in May 2026 how to invest the stolen amount, and on June 26 how to draft a job application for Greece, providing prosecutors with a damning chat history.
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