The United States Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) arrested an information technology (IT) specialist on Thursday in northern Virginia for allegedly attempting to provide confidential defense intelligence to a friendly foreign government.
According to a statement from the U.S. Department of Justice, 28-year-old Nathan Vilas Laatsch contacted a foreign government back in March, expressing willingness to provide intelligence documents in exchange for citizenship of that country.
Laatsch, a resident of Alexandria, Virginia, has been working as an IT specialist in the DIA’s internal threat department since 2019, holding a “Top Secret” security clearance.
The FBI received information in March this year that someone was volunteering to provide confidential information to a foreign government. This individual was identified as Laatsch. According to the indictment, in emails sent to the foreign entity, he stated that he “disagreed with the values of the current government” and was willing to provide sensitive data he had access to, including “completed intelligence reports, some unprocessed intelligence, and other various classified documents.”
Following the communication with an undercover FBI agent whom he thought was a foreign government official, Laatsch began copying confidential content from his office desk and removing notes from the work area over a period of about three days.
On May 1, Laatsch went to a park in northern Virginia as agreed and left a USB drive as a delivery medium for the intelligence.
Upon retrieval of the USB drive, the FBI discovered a message composed by Laatsch and multiple typed documents, some of which were labeled with “Secret” or “Top Secret” classification markings. Laatsch mentioned that he provided a “fair amount of samples” to demonstrate the range of intelligence reports he had access to.
After confirming the USB had been received, on May 7, Laatsch expressed to the undercover agent his intention to continue providing confidential information in exchange for citizenship of the foreign country, stating that the current situation was not going to improve in the long run, and he was considering immigrating to another country.
He also mentioned that he was not averse to other forms of compensation but emphasized that he was not in urgent need of “material rewards” at the moment.
On May 29, Laatsch was arrested by the FBI when he arrived at a location in northern Virginia to deliver more classified documents as planned.
The U.S. Department of Justice stated that the investigation was led by the FBI Washington Field Office, with significant assistance from the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations (OSI), and thanked the cooperation of the Defense Intelligence Agency.
Laatsch has been formally charged, and the case is jointly handled by the Department of Justice’s National Security Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. It is underscored that criminal charges are merely allegations and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in court.