(Washington) A US Navy engineer admitted in federal court on Monday that he had tried to sell nuclear submarine secrets to a foreign power.
Posted at 6:05 p.m.
Jonathan Toebbe, 43, pleaded guilty before a federal judge, more than four months after being arrested with his wife Diana, in this incredible case. In exchange, he should be sentenced to between 12 and a half and 17 and a half years in prison.
His wife, a teacher, has so far maintained her innocence and sought release to care for their two teenage children. But the plea agreement concluded by Jonathan Toebbe incriminates him.
“Diana Toebbe knowingly and willingly joined in this conspiracy to transmit confidential data to another person for the purpose of obtaining a profit from a foreign nation,” according to the document.
This twist does not lift the mystery of the country to which the couple tried to sell their information. Court documents simply imply that it is an ally of the United States and that they do not speak English there.
US nuclear submarines were at the center of a heated diplomatic crisis in September, when Australia canceled a mega-deal with France to announce a strategic partnership with the United States and the United Kingdom.
According to court documents, Jonathan Toebbe had been working since 2012 on the design of the reactors for Virginia-class submarines, the latest generation of attack submersibles in the American fleet.
In April 2020, he had sent a package to a third country with initial documents and instructions for establishing contact. “I apologize for this bad translation in your language”, affirmed the engineer in his message while promising to deliver “information of great value”.
The package had arrived in December 2020 at the attaché of the American federal police in this country. The FBI had then established contact with the engineer by posing as a representative of this country which cooperated, going so far as to place a flag on its embassy in Washington to prove to Jonathan Toebbe that his interlocutor was not a investigator.
Jonathan Toebbe had received between June and August payments in cryptocurrency for 100,000 dollars, in exchange for which he handed over confidential information from the navy.
This data was contained in encrypted SD cards, deposited by the couple in pre-agreed locations and concealed in a peanut butter sandwich, a packet of chewing gum or a bandage wrapper.