Navy Nuclear Engineer and Wife Charged in Espionage Plot
Jonathan Toebbe, a Navy nuclear engineer with top-secret clearance, and his wife have been charged with repeatedly trying to pass secrets about U.S. nuclear submarines to a foreign country, in an alleged espionage plot discovered by the FBI.
Landwebs
Jonathan Toebbe, a Navy nuclear engineer with top-secret clearance, and his wife have been charged with repeatedly trying to pass secrets about U.S. nuclear submarines to a foreign country, in an alleged espionage plot discovered by the FBI, reports the Washington Post. In December 2020, an FBI official received a package that had been sent to the foreign country containing U.S. Navy documents, a letter and instructions for how to conduct encrypted communications with the person offering the information.
The court papers show an email conversation that began nearly a year ago in which Toebbe allegedly discussed espionage tradecraft and payments with someone he thought was a foreign spy but was in fact an undercover FBI agent. Toebbe allegedly asked for $100,000 in cryptocurrency. His wife, Diana Toebbe, appeared to be “acting as a lookout.” Toebbe and his wife were charged with conspiracy to communicate restricted data and communication of restricted data. The information Toebbe turned over included details of the design, operations and performance of Virginia-class nuclear submarine reactors.
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24430706/elon_musk_twitter_for_you.png)
