A
former
employee
of
the
National
Security
Agency
was
sentenced
to
262
months,
just
shy
of
22
years,
in
prison
on
Monday
for
trying
to
send
classified
information
to
someone
he
thought
was
a
Russian
spy,
according
to
a
press
release
from
the
U.S.
Department
of
Justice
(DOJ).
As
it
turns
out,
the
Russian
spy
was
actually
an
FBI
agent.
Jareh
Sebastian
Dalke,
a
32-year-old
from
Colorado
Springs,
was
serving
as
an
Information
Systems
Security
Designer
for
the
NSA
in
2022
when
he
started
communicating
with
the
undercover
FBI
agent.
On
Aug.
26,
2022,
Dalke
requested
$85,000
from
what
he
thought
was
a
Russian
agent
in
exchange
for
information,
according
to
the
DOJ.
Dalke
emailed
some
excerpts
from
the
documents
through
an
encrypted
email
provider,
which
is
only
identified
as
both
foreign
and
a
“legitimate
company.”
After
the
terms
were
agreed
upon,
Dalke
met
the
supposed
Russian
spy
at
Union
Station
in
downtown
Denver
with
a
laptop.
At
that
point,
Dalke
reportedly
handed
over
four
documents
that
were
marked
Top
Secret
NDI,
highly
classified
information
related
to
national
defense.
Dalke
was
arrested
a
short
time
later.
Dalke, who served in the U.S. Army from 2015-2018 before becoming a civilian employee at NSA, began by sending the undercover FBI agent a cryptocurrency address for payment and deposited a similar amount to what he received during the scheme to the crypto exchange Kraken under his real name, according to court documents. But that wasn’t the only transparently stupid thing Dalke did. NSA tracks every document that’s printed at its facilities, something that made it easy to link these documents to Dalke.
From court documents:
NSA records regarding historical user activity on NSA systems reflect that DALKE printed each of the three classified documents, excerpts of which the OCE received from Email Account-1, as well as the full classified document which the OCE received from Email Account-1. DALKE was the only NSA employee to have printed all of these documents.
Dalke pleaded guilty to the charges in October 2023 and explained he was deeply in debt. Court documents available on the PACER database show Dalke filed for bankruptcy in 2017 owing about $90,000 to various creditors, including about $30,000 in student loans.
Typically, high-level security clearances aren’t handed out to people with big debt problems. That makes them more likely to do risky things for money. But given the fact that the average American was carrying $21,800 in personal debt last year, excluding mortgages, it may be more and more difficult to find Americans to work in highly sensitive jobs.
But
it
probably
wasn’t
just
money
problems
that
caused
Dalke
to
reach
out
to
what
he
thought
were
Russian
agents.
Court
documents
quote
Dalke’s
communications,
which
said
he
recently
learned
of
having
some
Russian
heritage,
“which
is
part
of
why
I
have
come
to
you
as
opposed
to
others.”
Dalke
also
said
he
applied
to
work
at
NSA
because
he,
“questioned
our
role
in
damage
to
the
world
in
the
past
and
by
mixture
of
curiosity
for
secrets
and
a
desire
to
cause
change.”
Prosecutors
were
quite
pleased
with
the
sentence
of
nearly
22
years
and
Attorney
General
Merrick
Garland
expressed
that
approval
in
a
press
release
on
Monday.
“This defendant, who had sworn an oath to defend our country, believed he was selling classified national security information to a Russian agent, when in fact, he was outing himself to the FBI,” Garland said. “This sentence demonstrates that those who seek to betray our country will be held accountable for their crimes. I am grateful to the FBI Denver and Washington Field Offices for their extraordinary work on this case.”
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