An IT specialist employed by the Defense Intelligence Agency was arrested Thursday and was accused of trying to provide confidential information to friendly foreign governments, the Department of Justice announced.
The FBI said that they began an investigation of Nathan Laatsch who was 28 years old in March after receiving the tips he offered to provide confidential information to foreign governments because-according to informster-laatsch did not “approve or harmonize with these administrative values” and are willing to share “complete intelligence products, some intelligences that are not proxied, and documentation that is absorbed together.”
Foreign country Lanatsch is accused of trying to contact not identified in court documents.
The seal for the Department of Justice was seen in the podium ahead of a press conference at the Judiciary Building Department, March 21, 2024, in Washington, DC
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In communicating with agents disguised with the FBI, disguised as a foreign country’s envoy, Laatsch is suspected of having transmitted confidential information into the notepad on his desk for a period of three days that he told the agent that he was ready to provide.
Video from inside the facility he was where Laatsch worked showed that he wrote a few pages of records, which he folded into the box and hid in his socks, according to a written statement submitted in the US District Court for the East Virginia district.
His other employees saw that Laatsch placed several pages of notebooks at the bottom of his lunch box, according to a written statement.
The FBI then conducted an operation on May 1 where Laatsch agreed to cancel confidential information through Thumb Drive in a place designated in the Public Park in North Virginia, according to the charging document.
The drive is allegedly containing information set both at the level of secret and confidential classification. Laatsch contacted the agent about a week later and said he was interested in citizenship to an unnamed country because he did not “expect things here to increase in the long run.”
Laatsch once again allegedly tried to prepare confidential information to be given to the agent and in previous operations, he arrived at a location in North Virginia where he was detained.
The arrest of Laatsch came in the midst of a broader concern among the current intelligence officials and the former that individuals with access to high -value confidential information could use the moment of chaos and concerns today in the Intel community to try and sell information to foreign governments to get profits.
Laatsch, which was employed by the Defense Intelligence Agency in August 2019, has recently worked as a data scientist and IT specialist for information security in the Threat Division of People in the Agency, according to court documents.
Online court records have not included lawyers to Laatsch.