Jonathan and Diana Toebbe live in Annapolis, Maryland, the city that is home to the United States Naval Academy, the main naval school in the United States, from which most of the admirals and naval officers have graduated. He, a nuclear engineer in the US Navy, held a national security clearance from the Department of Defense, giving him access to sensitive data.
Together with his wife, they were arrested on October 9 in Jefferson County, West Virginia, and charged with selling secret information about nuclear submarines for the benefit of a foreign government. Behind the representative of the latter was in fact hiding an undercover FBI agent, the US justice announced on Sunday.
“For nearly a year”, writes the US Department of Justice, 42-year-old nuclear engineer Jonathan Toebbe, assisted by his 45-year-old wife, Diana, “Sold protected information on the design of nuclear-powered warships to someone they believed to be a representative of a foreign power”, but who was “An FBI agent undercover”, detailed the US Department of Justice in his complaint, Sunday, October 10, without specifying which “Foreign power” it was.
The complaint from the Federal District Attorney for the Northern District of West Virginia specifically accuses the couple of passing on, “On or around June 26, 2021”, “Militarily sensitive design elements, operating parameters and performance characteristics of Virginia class submarine reactors”, the latest generation of attack submersibles in the US fleet. The suspect, an engineer employed in the navy’s nuclear propulsion program, “Has been working since October 2012” on these issues, says the complaint.
One hundred thousand dollars in cryptocurrency
The complaint from the American justice tells how the FBI agent got in touch with Jonathan Toebbe, after the interception of a first package, containing in particular “Documents of the navy” and a computer card giving the procedure for establishing contact on an encrypted messaging system. “I apologize for this poor translation into your language”, says the engineer in a ” letter “, where he promises that “The information will be of great value to your nation” and that’“This is not a hoax”, details the complaint.
According to excerpts from the exchanges, the undercover agent proposes ” a gift “ from “From a trusted friend in your country”, but the engineer, based in Annapolis, capital of the state of Maryland, is suspicious and wants to be paid in cryptocurrency. Between June and August, the man received, in several installments, 100,000 dollars in cryptocurrency, in exchange for which he handed over confidential information related to the nuclear reactors of submarines.
This data was contained on encrypted SD cards, deposited at pre-arranged locations in West Virginia, and concealed in a peanut butter sandwich or packet of chewing gum. The engineer wrote there under the name “Alice”.
The couple were arrested by the FBI on Saturday after once again dropping an SD card at a meeting place. Indicted for violating the atomic energy law, the Toebbe will appear in court for the first time on Tuesday in the case, in federal court in Martinsburg, West Virginia.
The US nuclear submarines were recently at the center of a major diplomatic crisis between Paris and Washington, when Australia canceled a mega-contract with France to announce a strategic partnership with the United States and the United Kingdom. Denouncing a ” treason “, a “Duplicity” and one “Contempt” On the part of its allies, Paris had recalled its ambassadors to Australia and the United States, an unprecedented gesture towards these two countries, on September 17.