FBI Counterintelligence Agent Arrested Over Alleged Theft of More Than $1 Million in Cryptocurrency

An FBI counterintelligence agent based at the bureau’s headquarters has been arrested on allegations that he siphoned off cryptocurrency obtained during an investigation.

CoinDesk reported on August 3 that Patrick Stephen Yarmuth, a supervisory special agent in the FBI headquarters’ counterintelligence and espionage unit, was arrested on July 31 on charges of embezzling more than $1 million in cryptocurrency. An indictment filed in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia says Yarmuth turned himself in to fellow agents.

The indictment says Yarmuth took private keys for cryptocurrency wallets from the FBI’s computer systems and transferred assets from accounts belonging to specific foreign nationals into his own accounts in as many as 12 transactions. Yarmuth was a senior agent with top-secret clearance who worked in a unit dedicated to investigations involving a designated hostile state.

Investigators said Yarmuth moved the stolen assets through crypto exchange Kraken and Suilend, a decentralized finance platform built on the Sui blockchain. An FBI review of his computer and phone records also found that he entered a query into an artificial intelligence app asking how he could leave the US and settle in a European Union country if he had about $1 million. The app recommended Portugal as the best option, and investigators confirmed that Yarmuth’s family was planning a trip there next month.

Authorities also found that Yarmuth had recently traveled to Germany, Portugal and Grenada in violation of internal FBI rules. He is being held in Alexandria, Virginia.