Former FBI agent set to plead guilty to stealing $1M in crypto

Federal agents routinely take custody of crypto seized as evidence, and the FBI has faced scrutiny over this before: in 2015 two agents on the Silk Road investigation, Carl Force and Shaun Bridges, were convicted of stealing bitcoin from the case they were working. Yaroch, a former agent, is now the latest example, pleading guilty to taking funds tied to wallets the Bureau had already collected as evidence across dozens of its own investigations.

Prosecutors tie the theft to credentials from 35 separate FBI investigations, meaning defense lawyers in those cases can now challenge the chain of custody of seized wallets and the integrity of evidence used against their clients. The Bureau faces forfeiture proceedings on the $2.47 million taken, a review of who held keys to seized assets, and pressure to tighten internal controls before sentencing, which will also weigh the exposure of intelligence sources and methods.

Crypto's design lets a holder of private keys move funds irreversibly and pseudonymously, which is exactly why custody of seized wallets inside a law enforcement agency is a single point of failure: whoever controls the keys controls the money, regardless of badge or oversight. Yaroch allegedly used ChatGPT to plan a move to Europe after draining the wallets, a detail that underscores how an insider with access, not an outside hacker, can turn an evidence locker into a personal account.

Sentencing will determine how much of the $2.47 million is recovered through forfeiture and what penalty follows a guilty plea covering theft from 35 cases. Separately, any FBI or Justice Department review of digital-asset custody procedures prompted by this case will show whether access controls actually change, or whether the agency treats this as an isolated breach rather than a systemic gap.