In the US, former Pentagon employee Jareh Sebastian Dahlke was sentenced to 21 years in prison in the case of espionage, the US Department of Justice reports.
In 2023, 30-year-old Dahlke pleaded guilty to six counts of attempting to pass classified information to a foreign (Russian) agent.
From June 6 to July 1, 2022, the man was an employee of the National Security Agency (NSA), where he worked as a developer of security systems for information systems. Dahlke admitted that between August and September 2022, he used an encrypted email account to transmit excerpts of three classified documents to a person he believed to be a Russian agent.
On or about August 26, 2022, Dahlke requested $85 000 in exchange for all the information he possessed. According to him, these data were of great importance for Russia.
Later, he did pass on the secret information and sent a letter saying, "I am very happy to finally provide you with this information and look forward to our friendship."
The recipient turned out to be an undercover FBI agent, so the data leak was prevented. The FBI arrested Dahlke on September 28, 2022, minutes after he turned over the files.
“The defendant, who took an oath to protect our country, believed he was selling classified national security information to a Russian agent, but was actually impersonating the FBI. This sentence demonstrates that those who seek to betray our country will be held accountable for their crimes," the attorney general said.
At trial, he pleaded guilty and admitted that he knowingly passed on information with the intent to harm the United States.