US Navy engineer and wife allegedly tried to sell nuclear submarine secrets

A latest U.S. Navy engineer and his wife were being charged with sending restricted naval info internationally, with the intention of advertising it, court docket records unsealed over the weekend exhibit.

Jonathan Toebbe and his wife, Diana Toebbe, allegedly communicated via encryption services with an undercover FBI agent and attempted to offer submarine knowledge that was restricted, in accordance to a prison complaint.

The FBI ended up brought into the circumstance from the starting, court documents say.

Starting up in December 2020, an unspecified country acquired a bundle from the United States, containing U.S. Navy files as effectively as an SD disc and a letter outlining that it was not a hoax, the FBI says.

“Remember to ahead this letter to your army intelligence company. I consider this facts will be of good price to your nation,” the letter in the package deal allegedly claimed. “This is not a hoax.”

They turned it around to the FBI legal attaché in the place, and FBI commenced to talk through encrypted e-mail, according to the criticism. Allegedly on the other side of that encrypted electronic mail was Jonathan Toebbe.

The FBI alleges he requested to be compensated in cryptocurrency composing in an email that, “Confront to confront meetings are very risky for me, as I am confident you fully grasp. I propose exchanging gifts electronically, for mutual security.”

An undercover FBI agent whom he was speaking with was posing as a representative of a international country, and allegedly advised a fall location for him to drop off delicate information and facts, in accordance to the criticism.

Court docket files say Toebbe requested for a signal to be positioned in the country’s most important building as a indication of superior faith even though he frequented Washington, D.C., which the FBI put, and as a indicator of great religion, paid out Toebbe $10,000 in cryptocurrency.

Just after the exchange, the governing administration alleges Teobbe dropped delicate documents in West Virginia, whilst his spouse allegedly acted as a lookout.

“Records show that JONATHAN TOEBBE is a federal government staff performing as a nuclear engineer for the United States Navy and retains an lively Leading Solution Security Clearance by means of the United States Department of Defense and an energetic Q clearance from the United States Division of Electrical power,” the paperwork point out.

The federal government alleges that Toebbe set an SD card made up of restricted naval data inside a peanut butter sandwich.

“Precisely, the U.S. Navy matter issue skilled decided that various of the paperwork contained militarily delicate style features, working parameters, and effectiveness traits of Virginia-class submarine reactors,” courtroom paperwork condition.

In complete, Toebbe allegedly been given $100,000 for dropping off restricted facts.

He allegedly carried out three fall-offs.

“The U.S. Navy topic issue expert established that several paperwork on the SD card contained Limited Facts. Specifically, the U.S. Navy topic subject qualified identified that the document contained schematic styles for the Virginia-course submarine. Virginia-course submarines are nuclear-powered cruise missile fastattack submarines, which include the most current in stealth, intelligence gathering, and weapons programs technologies,” the paperwork say. “Virginia-class submarines, with a for every device cost of somewhere around $3 billion, are presently in assistance with the United States Navy and are predicted to continue to be in service until eventually at the very least 2060.”

The Toebbes were arrested in Jefferson County, West Virginia, by the FBI and the Naval Prison Investigative Assistance (NCIS) Saturday. They will look in federal court in Martinsburg, West Virginia, on Tuesday. They have been billed in a criminal grievance alleging violations of the Atomic Electricity Act.