A former US Army officer has pleaded guilty for sharing classified information to a user on a foreign dating site.
Last week, the Justice Department announced the news, which suggests the former army officer might have fallen for a romance scam on the unnamed dating platform.
The 64-year-old Franklin David Slater, a retired lieutenant colonel based in Nebraska, sent the defense secrets to a user claiming to be a Ukrainian woman back in 2022 when Russia began a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Although Slater had retired from the US Army in 2020, he had started work the next year as a civilian contractor for US Strategic Command and dealt with classified information, according to court documents. This included receiving briefings concerning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
US investigators say Slater was well aware the information was confidential. Nevertheless, he shared the defense secrets with a user on a dating site claiming to be a Ukrainian woman, who he communicated with using email and through an online messaging platform.
The mysterious Ukrainian woman sent messages, including “Beloved Dave, do NATO and (President) Biden have a secret plan to help us?” and “Dave, I hope tomorrow NATO will prepare a very unpleasant ‘surprise’ for Putin! Will you tell me?”
The court documents say Slater responded to the requests by providing the classified intel, which covered military targets and Russia’s military capabilities. Federal investigators add the Ukranian woman called Slater her “secret informant love” and her “secret agent.”
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The real identity of the Ukrainian woman was left unsaid. So it’s unclear if she was a real love interest or a state-sponsored spy operation. Still, the antivirus provider Malwarebytes noted the case underscores how romance-related scams can prey on people desperate for affection.
“Slater’s years of military experience meant he should have known better, said DoJ (Justice Department) prosecutors. But this sad story shows just how powerful emotions can be in causing someone to cross personal and professional boundaries,” Malwarebytes wrote in a blog post.
Slater now faces up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 for conspiring to transmit the classified information.
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