An FBI agent stole more than $900,000 in cryptocurrency from accounts the agency was monitoring after he said he became frustrated by what he saw as government inaction over the misuse of crypto accounts, according to court records made public on Monday.
The agent, Patrick Steven Yaroch, came across the crypto holdings while a member of the FBI’s national security investigative squad focused on an “adversarial nation” and grew “frustrated when he could not do more to disrupt” an unnamed person’s use of the crypto accounts, according to an affidavit in Yaroch’s case. Using his internal agency access, he later allegedly transferred the crypto holdings to his personal account.
The FBI fired Yaroch, and he was arrested last week. A criminal complaint lists charges against him related to the interstate transport of stolen goods and the receipt of stolen goods.
An attorney for Yaroch was not listed in court records. CNN has contacted an email associated with Yaroch for comment.
The FBI gathers a slew of intelligence on cryptocurrency accounts allegedly used by criminal and state actors in Russia, China and elsewhere. But when and how to act on those accounts – whether to seize them or use them to collect more intelligence – is often decided on a case-by-case basis.
