ALEXANDRIA, Va. (Diya TV) – A retired CIA official from Miami pleaded guilty Wednesday to acting as an unregistered foreign agent and illegally retaining classified government materials, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Dale Britt Bendler, 68, admitted to engaging in unauthorized lobbying and public relations work for foreign clients while employed as a full-time contractor for the CIA between 2017 and 2020. Prosecutors said Bendler held a Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information (TS/SCI) security clearance during that time and used his access to benefit private clients without the agency’s knowledge.

Bendler faces a maximum sentence of seven years in federal prison when he is sentenced July 16. He also agreed to forfeit $85,000 as part of his plea agreement, the Justice Department announced in a press release.

A 30-year veteran of the CIA, Bendler retired in 2014 as a member of the Senior Intelligence Service before returning to the agency as a contractor. Prosecutors said that starting in July 2017, he began secretly working with a U.S.-based lobbying firm to represent foreign nationals without disclosing those ties as required under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).

Among his efforts, Bendler attempted to influence a foreign government’s embezzlement investigation involving one of his clients by leveraging his CIA position, according to court documents. In a separate instance, he sought to sway a U.S. visa decision for another client who was allegedly linked to terrorism financing.

Authorities say Bendler earned hundreds of thousands of dollars for these lobbying efforts. Throughout this period, he accessed classified CIA systems to search for information that could benefit his clients, then improperly stored and disclosed sensitive and classified materials to individuals not authorized to receive them.

The Justice Department said Bendler also lied to the CIA and the FBI about his foreign agent activities and failed to disclose his lobbying work during security screenings.

The CIA terminated his contract and access to classified information in September 2020.

In announcing the guilty plea, U.S. Attorney Erik S. Siebert for the Eastern District of Virginia praised the work of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, which led the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Gordon D. Kromberg and attorneys from the Justice Department’s National Security Division are prosecuting the case.

“Foreign influence operations that exploit insiders at the highest levels of our intelligence services present a grave threat to our national security,” said Assistant Attorney General Sue Bai, who leads the National Security Division.