前FBI探员认罪：盗用35宗调查的钱包凭证、窃取约247万美元加密货币
美国司法部弗吉尼亚东区联邦检察官办公室11月5日宣布，前联邦调查局（FBI）探员 Patrick Steven Yaroch 已在 Alexandria 的联邦法院认罪，承认电汇欺诈与洗钱罪名。他利用职务之便接触到 FBI 在调查中收集的加密货币钱包凭证，盗走约 247 万美元加密货币。
法庭文件显示，Yaroch 现年 37 岁，住在弗吉尼亚州 Ashburn。2017 年至 2025 年初，他在 FBI 波士顿分局一个针对敌对国家行为体的调查组工作；2025 年 2 月至 2026 年 7 月 31 日，他转到 FBI 反情报与间谍部门任职，其间可以接触存有 FBI 各宗调查所收集加密货币凭证的内部系统。
检方指，最迟从 2024 年 12 月起，Yaroch 开始盗取多个其他调查对象、敌对国家行为体所控制钱包中的加密货币，以及至少一个 FBI 为行动专门设立的钱包。他使用与 35 宗不同 FBI 调查有关的凭证，进行了约 100 笔欺诈性转账，非法所得共计 2,474,380.66 美元。
盗走加密货币后，Yaroch 会先把币种兑换成另一种加密货币，再通过多笔金融交易层层转移，以掩盖资金的来源、性质与归属。2025 年 11 月 25 日至 2026 年 1 月 13 日之间，他把约 93,082 美元转入自己的一个账户，再在名下多个账户之间腾挪，用来偿还信用卡、车贷和其他贷款等个人债务。
法庭文件还显示，Yaroch 原打算用部分赃款在海外开始新生活：他曾向 ChatGPT 咨询如何让投资收益最大化、去欧盟哪个国家居住；在 ChatGPT 建议他去葡萄牙买一座葡萄园后，他于 2026 年 6 月 15 日向葡萄牙律师出具授权书，委托对方代办税务登记、取得葡萄牙税号并领取其财务门户密码，并安排在 2026 年 9 月前往葡萄牙。
按照双方确认的事实陈述，Yaroch 的行为损害了 FBI 多宗涉及犯罪集团与国家行为体的调查，使 FBI 人员难以履行保护公共安全与国家安全的职责，也使 FBI 在外国情报收集与刑事调查中使用的来源与方法受到损害。
联邦地区法官 Patricia Tolliver Giles 已接受 Yaroch 的认罪答辩，量刑定于 2027 年 3 月 4 日，他面临最高 20 年监禁；实际刑期将由法官在考虑联邦量刑指南及其他法定因素后决定。此案案号为 1:26-CR-208，由联邦助理检察官 Kathleen Robeson 与 Russell Carlberg 起诉，司法部国家安全司国家安全网络科与司法部督察长办公室中大西洋地区办公室提供了重要协助。
Former FBI Agent Pleads Guilty: Stole About $2.47 Million in Crypto Using Credentials From 35 Investigations
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia announced on November 5 that former FBI agent Patrick Steven Yaroch has pleaded guilty in federal court in Alexandria to wire fraud and money laundering, admitting that he used his access to steal cryptocurrency through wallet credentials the FBI had collected in its investigations, taking about $2.47 million.
According to court documents, Yaroch, 37, of Ashburn, Virginia, worked from 2017 through early 2025 at the FBI's Boston Division on an investigative squad focused on an adversarial nation state. From February 2025 to July 31, 2026, he worked in the FBI's Counterintelligence and Espionage Division, where he had access to FBI systems that contained cryptocurrency credentials the bureau had collected as part of its investigations.
Beginning no later than December 2024, prosecutors say, Yaroch stole cryptocurrency from wallets controlled by the subjects of various other investigations and by adversarial nation-state actors, and from at least one wallet the FBI had created for an operation. He conducted approximately 100 fraudulent transfers using credentials related to 35 separate FBI investigations, illicitly gaining a total of $2,474,380.66.
Once he moved the stolen cryptocurrency, Yaroch would exchange it for a different type of cryptocurrency and then launder it through additional financial transactions to obscure its source, nature and ownership. Between November 25, 2025, and January 13, 2026, he transferred approximately $93,082 to one of his own accounts and then moved the funds among his other accounts, sending payments to cover personal debts including credit cards, car payments and other loans.
Court documents also show that Yaroch intended to use the proceeds to finance a new life abroad. He asked ChatGPT how to maximize profit from investments and where to live in the European Union. Following ChatGPT's suggestion of buying a vineyard in Portugal, on June 15, 2026, he gave a power of attorney to lawyers in Portugal to register him with the Portuguese Tax and Customs Authority, obtain his tax identification number and collect the password to his finance portal, and he made arrangements to travel to Portugal in September 2026.
As set forth in the agreed statement of facts, Yaroch's actions compromised multiple FBI investigations related to both criminal groups and nation-state adversaries, deprived FBI employees of their ability to carry out their functions to protect public safety and national security, and compromised FBI sources and methods used in foreign intelligence collection and criminal investigations.
U.S. District Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles accepted the plea. Yaroch is scheduled to be sentenced on March 4, 2027, and faces up to 20 years in prison; the court will determine the sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors. The case, No. 1:26-CR-208, is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kathleen Robeson and Russell Carlberg, with significant assistance from the National Security Cyber Section of the Justice Department's National Security Division and the Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General Mid-Atlantic Region.
来源：美国司法部
发布：GSM·美国（发布链接）
图片来源：图：位于华盛顿的美国联邦调查局（FBI）总部胡佛大楼。本案被告曾任 FBI 探员、被指盗用该局调查系统中的钱包凭证。ajay_suresh 摄，CC BY 2.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: The J. Edgar Hoover Building, FBI headquarters in Washington. The defendant was a former FBI agent accused of misusing wallet credentials held in bureau investigative systems. By ajay_suresh, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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