On October 10, 2021, a Maryland couple was arrested on espionage-related charges in an investigation that included cryptocurrency payments. Jonathan Toebbe, 42, a Navy Department employee, and wife Diana, 45, are now under following involvement in said investigations.
The US arrested the two also for encrypted emails and a “dead drop” of a memory card stashed inside a peanut butter sandwich in West Virginia. The Justice Department said that the two have charges regarding spying. The couple allegedly sold highly classified data about nuclear-powered submarines to an FBI agent disguised as a foreign official.
Couple Arrested on Spy Charges: Background
A nuclear engineer, Jonathan Toebbe, had an assignment in the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program. The investigations happened when he sent a package to a foreign government in early April 2020. According to the statement, the package included a sample of the restricted data and an offer of selling more.
In December of the same year, the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s attaché in the abovementioned foreign country got hold of the package. However, the government’s criminal complaint didn’t identify the foreign country.
The statement alleged that Toebbe had access to data on naval nuclear propulsion. The information included military-sensitive design elements and operating parameters. It also contains data on the performance characteristics of reactors for nuclear-powered warships.
The FBI agent who posed as a foreign official sent Toebbe a total of $100,000 in cryptocurrency in a span of several months. In exchange, Toebbe provided two SD cards containing restricted data related to submarine nuclear reactors, the Department of Justice stated.
After placing another SD card at a “dead drop” in West Virginia, the couple was arrested on spy charges by the FBI. Both from Annapolis, Maryland, the couple are charged with spying-related charges under the US Atomic Energy Act.
Messages Received by the FBI
In a message the FBI received on one of the SD cards, Jonathan Toebbe purportedly said he had collected around 8,000 pages of materials. Plus, over 3,000 additional pages of data such as schematics and drawings.
In another message, Toebbe said, “I was extremely careful to gather the files I possess slowly and naturally in the routine of my job, so nobody would suspect my plan.” He also mentioned receiving training to notice warning signs and detect insider threats.
Toebbe also said, “I apologize for this poor translation.” It’s what he wrote in an initial package meant for the unidentified foreign country. “Please forward this letter to your military intelligence agency. I believe this information will be of great value to your nation. This is not a hoax.”
The FBI and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service arrested the couple in Martinsburg, West Virginia. The FBI said that Toebbe formerly worked at the Bettis Atomic Power Lab in Pittsburgh. The couple’s neighbors in Annapolis said that the two always kept to themselves. It even came to a surprise for them to see FBI agents in their neighborhood. The FBI searched the Toebbe household and cars.
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