Foreign IT specialist from an intelligence agency accused of attempting to share classified data with a foreign government
IT specialist Nathan Vilas Laatsch, 28, was taken into custody on Thursday following accusations of attempting to pass classified information to a friendly foreign government. The Justice Department made the announcement.
The FBI initiated an investigation in March after receiving a tip suggesting Laatsch, an employee of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), was willing to trade unprocessed, sensitive data and completed intelligence reports with a foreign entity. According to the tip, he did not concur with the values of the current administration.
However, the identity of the foreign country remains undisclosed in the court documents.
Using an undercover agent posing as an emissary from the foreign party, the FBI claims Nathan Laatsch transcribed classified material and kept the notes hidden in his socks and lunchbox during a three-day period at his DIA workstation. He expressed readiness to relinquish this information, arranging to leave the classified data on a flash drive in a public park in northern Virginia.
The investigators later seized the drive, discovering that it contained top-secret and secret-level documents. Additionally, in further communications with the supposed foreign representative, Laatsch expressed interest in acquiring citizenship in the unnamed country due to his pessimism about the long-term state of affairs in the United States.
Laatsch, hired at the DIA in August 2019 as a data scientist and IT specialist for information security in the Insider Threat Division, does not currently have a listed attorney, court records show. The investigation into Laatsch is part of growing concerns among current and former intelligence officials regarding individuals with access to high-value classified information who may exploit the current disarray in the intel community to sell information to foreign governments for profit.
The FBI's investigation unveiled that Nathan Laatsch, a data scientist and IT specialist at the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), was willing to use technology to transmit classified videos and sensitive data, allegedly to a foreign government, expressing his dissatisfaction with the current administration's values. It is speculated he harbored intentions to acquire citizenship in an unknown foreign country, suggesting his disillusionment with the long-term state of affairs in the United States.
