Virginia Defense IT Specialist Pleads Guilty To Selling Secrets To Undercover FBI Agent
A former IT specialist for the Defense Intelligence Agency pleaded guilty on Wednesday to transmitting national defense information after attempting to trade classified government documents for foreign citizenship, federal prosecutors announced.
Nathan Vilas Laatsch, 29, of Alexandria, faces up to life in prison when he is sentenced early next year.
According to court filings, Laatsch started working as a civilian for the DIA in 2019, where he was assigned to the agency’s Insider Threat Division and maintained a Top Secret security clearance.
The FBI first learned in March 2025 that Laatsch had reached out to offer classified materials to an allied foreign nation. Following that tip, an undercover FBI agent contacted Laatsch, posing as a representative of a foreign government.
Investigators said Laatsch hand-copied classified data onto paper notepads over a three-day span in late April 2025, regularly carrying the notes out of his secure workspace. He later typed the information, saved it to a USB flash drive, and left the device at a northern Virginia public park for pickup.
Federal agents recovered the drive, finding multiple files marked Secret and Top Secret. The drive also included a personal note from Laatsch explaining that he had gathered “a decent sample size” to “decently demonstrate the range of types of products” he could access.
Once the undercover agent confirmed receipt, Laatsch stated he wanted “citizenship” from the foreign country. He added that while he was “not opposed to other compensation,” he did not need any “material compensation” from a financial standpoint.
In mid-May 2025, the undercover operative told Laatsch that the supposed foreign government was ready for more material. Prosecutors said that over the next two weeks, Laatsch copied down several more pages of records from his classified terminal and smuggled the physical notes out inside his clothes.
On May 29, 2025, Laatsch traveled to an agreed drop site in northern Virginia to hand over the second batch of classified records. FBI agents arrested him immediately after receiving the files.
“U.S. government employees entrusted with our nation’s secrets must always protect our nation’s security, not cavalierly toss aside this responsibility out of disagreement, selfishness or greed,” Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement. “Laatsch faces serious consequences for violating his position of trust.”
Federal officials emphasized the irony of Laatsch’s specific assignment inside the intelligence community.
“By his own admission, Laatsch betrayed his oath by offering classified information to a foreign government, the very thing he was supposed to prevent as an employee of DIA’s Insider Threat Division,” said Assistant Director Roman Rozhavsky of the FBI’s Counterintelligence and Espionage Division.
Darren B. Cox, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI Washington Field Office, noted that the public relied on Laatsch “to detect spies and other insider threats within our midst,” adding that the defendant “instead became the very threat he was sworn to defend against.”
First Assistant U.S. Attorney Theophani K. Stamos for the Eastern District of Virginia said that “political disagreement is not a justification for jeopardizing the security of the United States,” while Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg stated that “unlawfully disclosing national defense information to a foreign government is a serious crime, not a form of principled dissent.”
The case was investigated by the FBI Washington Field Office, alongside the FBI’s Global Counterespionage Unit and the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations, with cooperation from the DIA.
Trial Attorney Mark Murphy of the National Security Division and Assistant U.S. Attorney Gordon Kromberg are prosecuting. Laatsch is scheduled for sentencing on Jan. 27, 2027, where a federal district judge will decide the penalty based on federal guidelines and statutory rules.