A supervisory special agent at FBI headquarters in Washington has been arrested and charged after allegedly siphoning more than $1 million in cryptocurrency from wallets the bureau itself had seized as part of an ongoing investigation. Patrick Steven Yarmoch, who held top-secret clearance and worked in the FBI's counterintelligence and espionage division, was taken into custody on July 31.
According to a court filing submitted August 1 to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Yarmoch allegedly extracted crypto keys from FBI systems and used them to make roughly a dozen unauthorized transfers out of accounts belonging to foreign individuals under active investigation by the agency.
From Boston field office to headquarters
Yarmoch, who lives in Ashburn, Virginia, previously served in the FBI's Boston field office within its national-security unit before his posting to headquarters. Prosecutors say he moved the stolen funds through Kraken, the Suilend lending protocol on the Sui blockchain, and a Slush wallet — a trail investigators were able to reconstruct despite the layers of platforms involved.
Court documents indicate Yarmoch was suspended and ultimately terminated from the bureau, and that he had allegedly turned himself in to agency colleagues before formal charges were filed. He is currently being detained in Alexandria, Virginia.
An AI query and unreported travel
Investigators cited an AI chatbot query allegedly tied to Yarmoch that read: "If you had a bucket of money (around $1 million) and you wanted to leave the USA and become a resident or citizen of an EU country, what would you do?" The response reportedly pointed toward Portugal as a destination.
The filing also notes unreported travel to Germany, Portugal, and Grenada, along with a planned trip to Portugal scheduled for the following month — details prosecutors are using to argue the alleged theft was tied to a broader plan to relocate abroad with the funds. The case underscores the exposure federal agencies face when crypto assets seized in investigations sit under the direct control of individual personnel, and it is likely to renew scrutiny of how law enforcement custodies digital assets during active cases.
