A US Navy engineer and his wife were arrested on Saturday. They are accused of selling secret information on nuclear submarines for the benefit of a foreign government, behind which was hiding an undercover FBI agent.
For nearly a year, 42-year-old engineer Jonathan Toebbe and his 45-year-old wife Diana Toebbe “sold protected information on the design of nuclear-powered warships,” the US Department of Justice said. Justice. They thought they were selling this information to a representative of a foreign power who was actually “an undercover FBI agent.”
Information “of great value”
At the end of June 2021, the couple would have precisely transmitted “elements of militarily sensitive design, operating parameters and performance characteristics of the reactors of the Virginia class submarines”, according to the complaint. The suspect has worked for the US Navy since October 2012.
The complaint 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”. In a letter, the engineer promises that the information “will be of great value to your nation”.
SD cards hidden in sandwiches
Suspicious, the engineer then asked to be paid in cryptocurrency. In several times between June and August, the man received payments in cryptocurrency for 100,000 dollars. The data delivered was contained in encrypted SD cards, deposited in pre-arranged locations and concealed in a peanut butter sandwich or packet of chewing gum.
The engineer wrote there under the name of “Alice”. The couple were arrested by the FBI after once again dropping an SD card at a meeting place. Indicted for violation of the law on atomic energy, they must appear this Tuesday for the first time in court in this case.
