A husband and wife pleaded guilty on Tuesday to attempting to sell classified secrets concerning nuclear submarines to a foreign government.
Jonathan Toebbe, a US navy engineer and his wife, Diana Toebbe, pleaded guilty to conspiracy in a federal court in West Virginia.
The Toebbes had previously plead guilty earlier in August, but a judge rejected the plea deal negotiated by prosecutors as ‘too lenient’
Federal prosecutors are seeking 12 to 17 years in prison for Jonathan, and 3 years for his wife. Additionally, both defendants face up to $100,000 in fines.
Jonathan allegedly smuggled information about the Navy’s Virginia-class submarines – nuclear attack subs that transport missiles and can run for decades before surfacing to refuel.
Jonathan worked as a nuclear engineer on the subs’ propulsion systems.
The Toebbes are accused of violating the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, which restricts access to data about US nuclear secrets. Jonathan could face one of the longest sentences ever handed down for breaking the law.
‘A critical component of national defense has been irreparably compromised,’ Vice Admiral William Houston told the court, the Baltimore Sun reported.
Houston, who commands the Atlantic submarine fleet, said Toebbe obtained ‘some of the most secure and sensitive information about our nuclear-powered fleet.’
The FBI said the Toebbes’ scheme began in April 2020 after they sent a foreign government a package containing Navy documents.
‘Please forward this letter to your military intelligence agency. I believe this information will be of great value to your nation,’ Jonathan said in a note in the package. ‘This is not a hoax.’
Jonathan said he was interested selling Navy secrets – including operations manuals and performance reports. He included instructions on how to establish a backdoor channel of communication with him.
The FBI hasn’t revealed which foreign country Jonathan contacted. The country’s foreign attaché notified the FBI and handed over his package in December 2020.
The Toebbes’ delivered the classified documents to a dead-drop location in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. Diana allegedly served as a lookout at the locations to ensure their safety.
For about a year, Jonathan downloaded classified documents and saved them onto SD cards, which he would hide inside objects including a pack of chewing gum and a peanut butter sandwich.
Jonathan told the undercover FBI agent that he collected the information for years, smuggling it through security checkpoints ‘a few pages at a time’ in order to avoid suspicion.
The entire time, the FBI was running an undercover sting operation. An agent posed as a representative of the foreign government and paid the Toebbes $100,000 in cryptocurrency for the documents.
Before their arrest in October 2021, Jonathan and Diana lived with their two children in a suburb of Annapolis, Maryland. When investigators searched their home, they found their children’s passports hidden in a ‘go-bag’ along with $11,000 in cash, a computer, and a cryptocurrency wallet.
Diana maintained her job as a teacher at an elite private school in Annapolis until her arrest. She originally pleaded not guilty, but changed her plea after her husband named her as a co-conspirator in February.
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