Yaroch settled his liabilities and aimed to apply the funds toward establishing a fresh start in Portugal, where his goal was to acquire a vineyard.
An ex-FBI counterintelligence operative entered a guilty plea regarding charges of wire fraud and money laundering associated with the theft of nearly $2.5 million in digital currency from unnamed hostile states and wallets undergoing active inquiries.
Patrick Steven Yaroch, aged 37, leveraged his investigative roles and authorized entry into Bureau systems to misappropriate crypto assets, subsequently swapping and washing them through various financial operations to mask their origin and ownership.
Yaroch executed roughly 100 illicit transactions tied to 35 bureau inquiries, accumulating $2,474,380.66 in funds, according to a press statement published on Thursday by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.
He had previously acknowledged responsibility for unauthorized movements involving around $1 million worth of virtual tokens, an event covered by Cointelegraph in August.
The statement indicates that Yaroch cleared his obligations and wanted to leverage the money to support a new beginning in Portugal, where he intended to purchase a vineyard.
The former investigator confessed that his conduct undermined federal investigations involving criminal syndicates and adversary countries.
Yaroch is facing a maximum sentence of 20 years behind bars. His sentencing hearing is scheduled for March 4, 2027.
Originally published at https://cointelegraph.com/news/ex-fbi-counterintelligence-agent-stole-almost-25m-in-crypto?utm_source=rss_feed&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss_partner_inbound.
