A former intelligence agency employee has been charged with crimes under the Espionage Act after he allegedly tried to sell classified information to an undercover FBI agent pretending to be a foreign spy.
Jareh Sebastian Dalke, 30, was an Information Systems Security Designer for the National Security Agency from June 6, 2022 to July 1, 2022, according to the Prosecutors on Thursday.
Between August and September 2022, Dalke used an encrypted email account to send excerpts of three classified documents he had obtained from an undercover FBI agent he believed to be working for a foreign government, according to a criminal complaint.
The complaint doesn't identify the foreign government, but it says that Dalke reached out to the SVR, which is a Russian spy agency.
Dalke later arranged to transfer more classified information to the undercover FBI agent in Denver, Colorado, according to the complaint. Dalke was arrested on Sept. 28 by the FBI after Dalke arrived in Denver at the meeting point.
The criminal complaint says Dalke told the undercover agent that he had taken highly sensitive information relating to foreign targeting of U.S. systems, as well as information on U.S. cyber operations. Dalke told the agent that he was still employed by the U.S. government, and asked for cryptocurrencies in exchange for the information.
Dalke transmitted excerpts of three classified documents to the undercover FBI agent to prove he had access to sensitive information, the complaint says. One was classified at the Secret level and two excerpts were classified at the Top Secret level. The FBI undercover agent sent cryptocurrencies to an address provided by Dalke, according to the complaint.
Dalke requested $85,000 in return for more information, according to the complaint. He applied for a job at the NSA in August.
Dalke is charged with three violations of the Espionage Act, which makes it a crime to transmit or attempt to transmit national defense information to a foreign country with the intent or reason to believe that information could be used to the benefit of the United States or to the advantage of a foreign nation. The Espionage Act can carry a potential sentence of death or for a period of years up to life.