Denver City Wire

A former National Security Agency (NSA) employee from Colorado Springs has been arrested on charges of attempting to sell classified information to a foreign government. 

Jareh Dalke tried to sell a document that was categorized as Secret level, and the other two were classified as Top Secret. Before he was arrested, Dalke tried to sell these classified documents for $85,000 in cryptocurrency. 

"There is an opportunity to help balance scales of the world while also tending to my own needs," Dalke told the undercover agent, USA Today reported. 

He made the request to be paid in cryptocurrency, according to court documents, saying “as in these things privacy is extremely important.” Dalke is charged with three counts of attempting to distribute national defense relevant data to a foreign government officer or agent and is due to appear in federal court in Denver soon.

The alleged crimes took place in Colorado between Aug. 1 and Sept. 26, according to 9News. The foreign government in question is only listed as "foreign government-1," but according to court documents, Dalke claimed to have attempted to contact Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service.

The documents were accessed by Dalke while working for the NSA. He worked there from June 6 to July 1. He resigned citing the need for family leave, according to the complaint.

Dalke's motivation for selling top-secret information stemmed from his desire to pay off nearly $33,000 in student loans and nearly $60,000 in debt, most of which was incurred through credit cards and has filed for bankruptcy in 2017.

Dalke was a member of the military with top-secret clearance before joining the NSA. Dalke also had "sensitive compartmented access" to other highly classified information, according to the complaint.