Maryland Couple Conspired to Sell Nuclear Secrets

A married pair from Maryland has admitted conspiring to steal nuclear strategies from the United States and offer them to a overseas country. 

Annapolis inhabitants, Jonathan and Diana Toebbe, were arrested by the FBI and the Naval Felony Investigative Company on October 9 2021 soon after placing an SD card made up of stolen restricted facts at a pre-arranged ‘dead drop’ spot in Jefferson County, West Virginia.

At the time of his arrest, Jonathan Toebbe was used as a nuclear engineer by the Office of the Navy, who experienced assigned Toebbe to the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Method, also recognised as Naval Reactors.

✔ Approved From Our Partners

Protect and backup your data using AOMEI Backupper. AOMEI Backupper takes secure and encrypted backups from your Windows, hard drives or partitions. With AOMEI Backupper you will never be worried about loosing your data anymore.

Get AOMEI Backupper with 72% discount from an authorized distrinutor of AOMEI: SerialCart® (Limited Offer).

➤ Activate Your Coupon Code

Toebbe utilised the national security clearance he experienced acquired via the Section of Protection to access limited data. Between the facts Toebbe labored with and experienced entry to was information and facts concerning naval nuclear propulsion, which involved facts on military services sensitive design elements, running parameters and efficiency properties of the reactors for nuclear-driven warships.

Jonathan Toebbe admitted sending a sample of restricted facts to a foreign authorities in April 2020 together with directions on how that govt could obtain more techniques. 

The engineer then started a months-extended correspondence with an individual he believed to be a consultant of the overseas governing administration but who was an undercover FBI agent. 

Right after acquiring advance payments in cryptocurrency, Toebbe hid SD playing cards that contains stolen details in a peanut butter sandwich and a pack of gum and left them at pre-organized destinations for his customer to gather. 

Toebbe’s spouse Diana knowingly and voluntarily joined in on the conspiracy, serving as a lookout for her spouse although he finished 3 facts dead drops.

On February 14, 43-year-previous Jonathan Toebbe pleaded guilty to conspiracy to connect Restricted Facts connected to the style and design of nuclear-powered warships. Diana Toebbe, 46, pleaded guilty on February 18 to the exact same offense. 

US lawyer Cindy Chung for the Western District of Pennsylvania reported: “My place of work will continue to get the job done with our law enforcement associates to establish and maintain accountable individuals who would go after monetary achieve at the cost of their solemn responsibility to guard our country’s carefully held insider secrets.