Jonathan Toebbe, 42, is described as a nuclear engineer employed by the Navy. The DOJ said he and Diana, 45, first sent information in April to an unspecified country, offering “a sample of restricted data and instructions for establishing a covert relationship.”
“The affidavit also alleges that, thereafter, Toebbe began corresponding via encrypted email with an individual whom he believed to be a representative of the foreign government,” the DOJ said. “The individual was really an undercover FBI agent."
According to the criminal complaint, the FBI successfully convinced a skeptical Toebbe that he had successfully connected with a foreign agent, including by "conduct[ing] an operation in the Washington, D.C. area that involved placing a signal at a location associated" with the unspecified country. The goal was to persuade Toebbe that he was trading messages with a member of that country's intelligence service. After several months, Toebbe allegedly struck an agreement to sell restricted data in exchange for thousands of dollars in cryptocurrency.“
On June 26, the couple is alleged to have made its first drop of information in West Virginia, with Diana serving as a lookout.
“There, with Diana Toebbe acting as a lookout, Jonathan Toebbe placed an SD card concealed within half a peanut butter sandwich at a pre-arranged ‘dead drop‘ location,” the Justice Department said.
There was also an exchange in August; the two were arrested after another drop in West Virginia. According to the DOJ, the Toebbes received $100,000 in cryptocurrency — starting with a payment of $10,000 and ending with one of $70,000 — in exchange for the information that they provided and keys to accessing the information on the SD cards.
The Toebbes, who are residents of Annapolis, Md., will appear in court in Martinsburg, W. Va., on Tuesday.
The case stems from a violation of the Atomic Energy Act, 1954 legislation signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower meant to safeguard the nation’s nuclear secrets.
Cladari on October 10th, 2021 at 21:04 UTC »
Although the Navy keeps all it's reactor designs restricted all the information you need is publicly available. There isn't a real foreign power in the world who would pay for the information offered. The are no different than commercial pressurized water reactors with the exception being Military fuel is very highly enriched to reduce the size of the reactor.
InvisibleEar on October 10th, 2021 at 20:19 UTC »
impeccable spycraft
DaveOJ12 on October 10th, 2021 at 18:41 UTC »
The SD card hidden in half of a peanut butter sandwich was a nice touch.