Couple Get 40 Years for Navy Espionage Plot

A Maryland pair have been sentenced to a combined 494 months at the rear of bars just after making an attempt to promote layouts for the US navy’s nuclear-run warships to a overseas electricity.

Jonathan Toebbe, 44, of Annapolis, was sentenced to about 19 years in prison whilst his spouse Diane Toebbe bought around 21 a long time immediately after pleading guilty to the conspiracy in February.

Jonathan Toebbe was a nuclear engineer for the Division of the Navy at the time of his arrest, doing work on nuclear propulsion programs.

His “restricted data” security clearance gave him accessibility to sensitive info connected to armed service structure aspects, working parameters and performance properties of the reactors for nuclear-powered warships, in accordance to the Division of Justice (DoJ).

After sending a “package” to an unnamed overseas government that contains a sample of this info and directions on how to invest in supplemental intelligence, Toebbe is stated to have employed encrypted email to correspond with an specific he thought was a agent of this governing administration.

In truth, it was an undercover FBI agent, in accordance to the DoJ.

After receiving $10,000 in cryptocurrency as a “good faith” payment from the agent, Toebbe delivered an SD card containing delicate info, bizarrely hidden within a peanut butter sandwich.

The card evidently containied categorized info on submarine nuclear reactors.

Soon after accomplishing the exact matter two much more times, Toebbe and his spouse had been last but not least arrested in Oct 2021.

“If not for the outstanding endeavours of FBI brokers, the sensitive details stolen by Mr Toebbe could have finished up in the palms of an adversary of the United States and place the protection of our navy and our nation at risk,” claimed US legal professional William Ihlenfeld II. “The FBI keeps American citizens risk-free from enemies both of those foreign and domestic and this case is an great reminder of their significant get the job done.”

Some parts of this article are sourced from:
www.infosecurity-journal.com