The federal court case of a Pikes Peak region man convicted on espionage charges has come to a resolution as a federal judge handed down a two-decade sentence.

Army veteran and Colorado Springs resident Jareh Sebastian Dalke, 32, was accused of attempting to pass classified information to an FBI employee whom he believed was a Russian operative in 2022. Dalke was a former employee of the National Security Administration working in cybersecurity.

Dalke’s sentence is 262 months in prison, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

“This sentence should serve as a stark warning to all those entrusted with protecting national defense information that there are consequences to betraying that trust,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray in a U.S. Department of Justice statement on Monday.

Dalke pleaded guilty to six charges in October for the transfer of three NSA document excerpts rated as top-secret. In encrypted email correspondence outlined in an arrest affidavit, Dalke told the FBI employee he sent the documents, which included information on a threat assessment of a third country and analysis on U.S. defensive capabilities, to show his “legitimate access and willingness to share.”

He also wrote in an email that his “heritage ties back” to Russia, which is why he chose to come to the person he believed to be a Russian operative.

Dalke worked at the NSA in Washington as a information systems security designer from June 6 to July 1, 2022, court records show. He left after telling superiors he had an illness in the family and needed to return to Colorado. According to the affidavit, he told the FBI employee he would be returning to employment with the NSA and more access to classified documents.

Court records show Dalke filed for bankruptcy in 2018 and had over $80,000 in personal debt. In emails, Dalke asked for $85,000 in payment for the classified documents.

Early on, prosecutors ruled out the possibility of the death penalty in the case.

According to previous reporting by the Gazette, the terms of Dalke’s plea included him admitting to willfully transmitting classified documents. The maximum sentence he could have faced is life in prison. When released, Dalke will serve no more than five years of supervised release.