7/14/2023 0 Comments Navy nuclear engineer espionage![]() The couple has been charged with violations of the Atomic Energy Act, which prohibits anyone with access to classified information from sharing that information. ![]() area that involved placing a signal at a location associated with (the foreign government) in an attempted effort to gain bona fides with ‘ALICE,’” the name Toebbe used as an alias when penning emails.ĭuring what Toebbe believed to be a “dead drop,” or a hiding spot spies use to secretly pass information, the FBI said it arrested Jonathan and Diana on Saturday after Jonathan “placed yet another SD card” with classified information at a pre-arranged location in West Virginia. The agent worked on gaining Toebbe’s trust before he allegedly agreed to sell the information for thousands of dollars in cryptocurrency, according to the complaint.Īccording to the complaint, the FBI “conducted an operation in the Washington, D.C. The Justice Department said Jonathan Toebbe had access to information on naval nuclear propulsion and sensitive military design elements including “operating parameters and performance characteristics of the reactors for nuclear powered warships.”Īn FBI agent in a criminal complaint justifying the arrest alleges Toebbe first sent a package to a foreign government in April 2020 offering to sell the nuclear secrets, and an undercover FBI agent responded several months later via an encrypted email program and corresponded with him. The Washington Post first reported on the alleged espionage plot. The couple hasn’t yet entered a plea, and their first hearing is scheduled for Tuesday in West Virginia federal court. The bare-bones court filings didn’t contain details explaining why prosecutors think the couple is a flight risk, but they noted that the charges could carry a potential sentence of life in prison. In a pair of court filings on Monday, the Justice Department said the Toebbes should stay behind bars before trial because there is a risk that the couple will flee or destroy evidence. US Navy nuclear engineer Jonathan Toebbe, who held a top-secret security clearance, and his wife Diana were arrested Saturday in West Virginia by the FBI and Naval Criminal Investigative Service after the couple allegedly sold information concerning the design of nuclear-powered US warships “to a person they believed was a representative of a foreign power but was actually an undercover FBI agent,” according to a Department of Justice statement. A judge said Tuesday that each could face life in prison if convicted.Following a year-long operation by undercover FBI agents, a Maryland couple has been arrested and charged with attempting to sell US nuclear secrets to another country in exchange for cryptocurrency. 12 in federal court in Martinsburg, West Virginia. The Toebbes will have their initial appearances on Tuesday, Oct. Magistrate Judge Robert Trumble ordered them to remain detained pending a detention hearing on Friday at which more extensive arguments are expected to be made. ![]() Jonathan and Diana Toebbe each made brief appearances in federal court in Martinsburg, West Virginia. Officials said that during the drops Diana Toebbe acted as a lookout. The FBI set up a sting, and corresponded for several months before providing $100,000 in cryptocurrency for the secrets, which were left in encrypted SD cards at pre-arranged “dead drops” in West Virginia and Virginia, inside a half a peanut butter sandwich or chewing gum packages. According to officials, the investigation began in April 2020 after Jonathan Toebbe sent a package to a foreign government, listing a return address in Pittsburgh, containing a sample of the Restricted Data and instructions to purchase additional secrets. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |