Jareh Sebastian Dalke, Attempted Espionage, Colorado 2022

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Jareh Sebastian Dalke, 31, Pleads Guilty to Attempted Espionage

A former National Security Agency (NSA) employee, Jareh Sebastian Dalke, 31, of Colorado Springs, Colorado, pleaded guilty to six counts of attempting to transmit classified National Defense Information (NDI) to an agent of the Russian Federation.

Between June 6, 2022, and July 1, 2022, Dalke served as an Information Systems Security Designer at the NSA. He admitted to using an encrypted email account to transmit excerpts of three classified documents to an individual he believed to be a Russian agent between August and September 2022.

The documents, which contain Top Secret//Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI), were obtained by Dalke during his employment with the NSA. He requested $85,000 in return for the information and claimed it would be of value to Russia.

Dalke arranged to transfer additional classified information at Union Station in downtown Denver. He was arrested by the FBI on September 28, 2022, moments after he transmitted the files. He faces a maximum penalty of up to life in prison.

As part of his plea agreement, Dalke admitted to willfully transmitting files to the FBI online covert employee with the intent and reason to believe the information would be used to injure the United States and to benefit Russia.

Sentencing is scheduled for April 26, 2024. A U.S. district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Dalke’s case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Julia K. Martinez and Jena R. Neuscheler for the District of Colorado, and Trial Attorneys Christina A. Clark and Adam L. Small of the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section.