A computer specialist employed by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) was arrested today for trying to transmit information on national defense to an officer or agent of a foreign government.
Nathan Vilas Laatsch, 28, from Alexandria, Virginia, was arrested today in northern Virginia and will make his first appearance in the Virginia District.
According to court documents, Laatsch became a civilian DIA employee in 2019, where he worked with the initiate threat division and has a secret secret security authorization. In March 2025, the FBI started an operation after receiving an advice that an individual – now known to be Laatsch – proposed to provide classified information to a friendly foreign government. In this email, the sender wrote that he had not “accepted or aligned with the values of this administration” and was therefore “willing to share classified information” to which he had access, including “finished intelligence products, unprocessed intelligence and other assorted classified documents”.
After several communications with an FBI agent – that Laatsch would have believed to be a civil servant of the foreign government – Laatsch began to transcribe classified information to a notepad at his office and, during about three days, has repeatedly exfiltrated information from his workspace. Laatsch later confirmed to the FBI agent that he was ready to transmit the information.
Subsequently, the FBI implemented an operation in a public park in northern Virginia, where Laatsch thought that it would deposit classified information so that the foreign government could recover. On May 1, 2025, monitoring of the FBI observed that Laatsch went to the specified location and file an article. After the departure of Laatsch, the FBI recovered the article, which was a thumb reader who later contained a message from Laatsch and several typed documents, each containing information that was marked by the portions at the secret or top secret levels. Laatsch’s message said he chose to include “a decent sample” of classified information to “decently demonstrate the range of types of products” to which it had access.
After being confirmed that the thumb campaign had been received on May 7, Laatsch would have sent a message to the FBI agent, who indicated that Laatsch was looking for something to the foreign government in exchange for the continuation of providing classified information. The next day, Laatsch said he was interested in “citizenship for your country” because he did not expect things here to improve in the long term. “Although he said he was” not opposed to another compensation “, he was not in a position where he had to ask for a” material compensation “.
On May 14, the FBI agent informed Laatsch that he was ready to receive additional classified information. Between May 15 and 27, Laatsch has again transcribed several times several pages of notes while it was connected to her classified workstation, folded the notes and exfiltrated classified information in her clothes.
On May 29, Laatsch arrived in a pre-animated location in northern Virginia, where Laatsch would have again tried to transmit several classified documents to the foreign country. Laatsch was arrested during the FBI reception of documents.
Sue J. Bai, Head of the National Security Division of the Ministry of Justice, the American lawyer Erik S. Siebert for the Virginie Oriental District, the Deputy Director Roman Rozhavsky of the FBI counter-espionage division, and the executive director Lee Mr. Russ of Air Force Office of Special Investigations (OSI) Office of Special Projects Special Office announced the announcement.
The FBI Washington Field Office is investigating the case, with precious help provided by the US Air Force OSI and thanks to the Defense Intelligence Agency for its cooperation.
The lawyers for the Christina Clark and Mark Murphy trial of the Control of the Control of the Trust of Space and Exports of the National Division of the National Division and the Deputy American Prosecutor Gordon Kromberg for the Virginie Oriental District continue the case.
A criminal complaint is only an allegation. All the defendants are presumed innocent until guilt is proven beyond all reasonable doubts in court.
