The U.S. Attorney’s Office Eastern District of Virginia released the below information yesterday.
ALEXANDRIA, Va. – An
IT specialist employed by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) was arrested
today for attempting to transmit national defense information to an officer or
agent of a foreign government.
Nathan
Vilas Laatsch, 28, of Alexandria, was arrested in northern Virginia and will
make his initial court appearance tomorrow.
According
to court documents, Laatsch became a civilian employee of the DIA in 2019,
where he works with the Insider Threat Division and holds a Top-Secret security
clearance. In March, the FBI commenced an operation after receiving a tip that
an individual - now known to be Laatsch - offered to provide classified
information to a friendly foreign government. In that email, the sender wrote
that he did not “agree or align with the values of this administration” and was
therefore “willing to share classified information” to which he had access,
including “completed intelligence products, some unprocessed intelligence, and
other assorted classified documentation.”
After
multiple communications with an FBI agent - who Laatsch allegedly believed to
be an official of the foreign government - Laatsch began transcribing
classified information to a notepad at his desk and, over the course of
approximately three days, repeatedly exfiltrated the information from his
workspace. Laatsch subsequently confirmed to the FBI agent that he was prepared
to transmit the information.
The
FBI implemented an operation at a public park in northern Virgina where Laatsch
believed he would deposit the classified information for the foreign government
to retrieve. On May 1, FBI surveillance observed Laatsch proceed to the
specified location and deposit an item. Following Laatsch’s departure, the FBI
retrieved the item, which was a thumb drive later found to contain a message
from Laatsch and multiple typed documents, each containing information that was
portion-marked up to the Secret or Top Secret levels. The message from Laatsch
indicated that he had chosen to include “a decent sample size” of classified
information to “decently demonstrate the range of types of products” to which
he had access.
After
receiving confirmation that the thumb drive had been received, on May 7,
Laatsch allegedly sent a message to the FBI agent, which indicated Laatsch was
seeking something from the foreign government in return for continuing to
provide classified information. The next day, Laatsch specified that he was
interested in “citizenship for your country” because he did not “expect things here to improve in the long term.” Although he said he was “not opposed
to other compensation,” he was not in a position where he needed to seek
“material compensation.”
On
May 14, the FBI agent advised Laatsch that it was prepared to receive
additional classified information. Between May 15 and May 27, Laatsch again
repeatedly transcribed multiple pages of notes while logged into his classified
workstation, folded the notes, and exfiltrated the classified information in
his clothing.
On
May 29, Laatsch arrived at a prearranged location in northern Virginia, where
Laatsch again allegedly attempted to transmit multiple classified documents to
the foreign country. Laatsch was arrested upon the FBI’s receipt of the
documents.
Erik
S. Siebert, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; Sue J. Bai,
head of the Justice Department’s National Security Division; Roman Rozhavsky,
Assistant Director of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division; Steven J. Jensen,
Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI Washington Field Office; and Lee M.
Russ, Executive Director of Air Force Office of Special Investigations (OSI)
Office of Special Projects, made the announcement.
The
FBI Washington Field Office is investigating the case, with valuable assistance
provided by the U.S. Air Force OSI.
Assistant
U.S. Attorney Gordon Kromberg for the Eastern District of Virginia and Trial
Attorneys Christina Clark and Mark Murphy of the National Security Division’s
Counterintelligence and Export Control Section are prosecuting the case.
A criminal complaint is merely an accusation. The defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty.
No comments:
Post a Comment