US government snitch-finder pleads guilty to leaking state secrets to foreign spies
The IT specialist began contacting a foreign government within days of being assigned to the DIA’s Insider Threat Division
Former DIA IT specialist Nathan Vilas Laatsch pleaded guilty to leaking classified state secrets to a foreign government, according to prosecutors. The 29-year-old, who had been employed at the DIA since 2019, was arrested in May 2025 after an undercover FBI agent caught him transmitting intelligence packages in a public park. Laatsch, who held top-secret clearance, had been assigned to the DIA's Insider Threat Division in spring 2025.
He initially offered to share classified information in an email to an overseas administration, later agreeing to the FBI's undercover operation to trick him into believing he was communicating with a spy. Laatsch spent his workdays writing notes and hiding them before leaving his office, eventually transcribing classified information by hand and transferring it to an FBI-controlled location in an Arlington, Virginia park.
Laatsch expressed no financial motives for his actions and hoped his initial tranche of files would serve as proof of the information he had access to.
Written by urgent.news from The Register Science's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
