DOJ: Maryland Nuclear Engineer and Spouse Arrested on Espionage-Related Charges

[China]

Maryland Nuclear Engineer and Spouse Arrested on Espionage-Related Charges

 

Jonathan and Diana Toebbe, both of Annapolis, Maryland, were arrested in Jefferson County, West Virginia, by the FBI and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) on Saturday, Oct. 9. They will have their initial appearances on Tuesday, Oct. 12, in federal court in Martinsburg, West Virginia. For almost a year, Jonathan Toebbe, 42, aided by his wife, Diana, 45, sold information known as Restricted Data concerning the design of nuclear-powered warships to a person they believed was a representative of a foreign power. In actuality, that person was an undercover FBI agent. The Toebbes have been charged in a criminal complaint alleging violations of the Atomic Energy Act.

 

“The complaint charges a plot to transmit information relating to the design of our nuclear submarines to a foreign nation,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “The work of the FBI, Department of Justice prosecutors, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service and the Department of Energy was critical in thwarting the plot charged in the complaint and taking this first step in bringing the perpetrators to justice.”

 

Jonathan Toebbe is an employee of the Department of the Navy who served as a nuclear engineer and was assigned to the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program, also known as Naval Reactors. He held an active national security clearance through the U.S. Department of Defense, giving him access to Restricted Data. Toebbe worked with and had access to information concerning naval nuclear propulsion including information related to military sensitive design elements, operating parameters and performance characteristics of the reactors for nuclear powered warships.

 

The complaint affidavit alleges that on April 1, 2020, Jonathan Toebbe sent a package to a foreign government, listing a return address in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, containing a sample of Restricted Data and instructions for establishing a covert relationship to purchase additional Restricted Data. The affidavit also alleges that, thereafter, Toebbe began corresponding via encrypted email with an individual whom he believed to be a representative of the foreign government. The individual was really an undercover FBI agent. Jonathan Toebbe continued this correspondence for several months, which led to an agreement to sell Restricted Data in exchange for thousands of dollars in cryptocurrency.

 

On June 8, 2021, the undercover agent sent $10,000 in cryptocurrency to Jonathan Toebbe as “good faith” payment. Shortly afterwards, on June 26, Jonathan and Diana Toebbe traveled to a location in West Virginia. There, with Diana Toebbe acting as a lookout, Jonathan Toebbe placed an SD card concealed within half a peanut butter sandwich at a pre-arranged “dead drop” location. After retrieving the SD card, the undercover agent sent Jonathan Toebbe a $20,000 cryptocurrency payment. In return, Jonathan Toebbe emailed the undercover agent a decryption key for the SD Card. A review of the SD card revealed that it contained Restricted Data related to submarine nuclear reactors. On Aug. 28, Jonathan Toebbe made another “dead drop” of an SD card in eastern Virginia, this time concealing the card in a chewing gum package. After making a payment to Toebbe of $70,000 in cryptocurrency, the FBI received a decryption key for the card. It, too, contained Restricted Data related to submarine nuclear reactors. The FBI arrested Jonathan and Diana Toebbe on Oct. 9, after he placed yet another SD card at a pre-arranged “dead drop” at a second location in West Virginia.

 

Click on the link for the full press release

[The Evil Genius]

Don't **** with Leroy Jethro Gibbs.  😁

[TK]

 

[BatteredFanSyndrome]

In case anyone was wondering, they are hardcore lefties.  Found them on social media.

 

Surprised the right wingers havent been beating that drum.  I guess they will soon enough.

[LadySkinsFan]

36 minutes ago, BatteredFanSyndrome said:

In case anyone was wondering, they are hardcore lefties.  Found them on social media.

 

Surprised the right wingers havent been beating that drum.  I guess they will soon enough.

 

Good. Regardless of their political beliefs, they are traitors, just like those domestic terrorists on the right. 

[No Excuses]

The country they offered it to snitched on them to the FBI so I'm assuming it was an allied nation?

[Simmsy]

58 minutes ago, BatteredFanSyndrome said:

In case anyone was wondering, they are hardcore lefties.  Found them on social media.

 

Surprised the right wingers havent been beating that drum.  I guess they will soon enough.

They know that the left will make examples out of these two, if they do it to the left, they're going to do it to the right. The GOP can't be so stupid as to throw stones inside of a glass, traitor house...right?

[Larry]

1 hour ago, Simmsy said:

The GOP can't be so stupid as to throw stones inside of a glass, traitor house...right?

You new around here?

[Simmsy]

7 minutes ago, Larry said:

You new around here?

After reading what I just wrote, it seems like it.

[tshile]

1 hour ago, No Excuses said:

The country they offered it to snitched on them to the FBI so I'm assuming it was an allied nation?

Um, I’m reading it as they sent something out in an effort to establish a relationship and the FBI intercepted it. Then, pretended to be the people they were sending the package too. 
 

i imagine people who have access to things like designs and info related nuclear power plants that power warships are kept under close watch…

Edited October 11, 2021 by tshile

[Destino]

100k between the two drops and all it cost them was their freedom, being branded (rightly) as traitors forever, and essentially orphaning their two children.  Makes me wonder why they felt they needed the money so urgently.  Not that it would excuse any of this, just curious as to what motivated otherwise successful law abiding citizens to burn their own lives down.

[TradeTheBeal!]

[tshile]

11 minutes ago, Destino said:

100k between the two drops and all it cost them was their freedom, being branded (rightly) as traitors forever, and essentially orphaning their two children.  Makes me wonder why they felt they needed the money so urgently.  Not that it would excuse any of this, just curious as to what motivated otherwise successful law abiding citizens to burn their own lives down.

I’m guessing the first ones were showing ability/access and they had planned on making a lot more money. 
 

but, in a more general sense, it’s hard for me to understand how two people could be so successful and yet risk it all for this.  I imagine people who are smart enough to earn a job working on designs/research/whatever for nuclear power plants are making quite a bit of money …

 

 

side note: I was friends with someone in college that was the daughter of a famous, arrested and convicted spy (happened before I met her).  She was a complete disaster of a person from it. Most of the immediate family was. Those kids didn’t just lose their parents, they lost their lives too. 

[PleaseBlitz]

21 minutes ago, tshile said:

but, in a more general sense, it’s hard for me to understand how two people could be so successful and yet risk it all for this.  I imagine people who are smart enough to earn a job working on designs/research/whatever for nuclear power plants are making quite a bit of money …

 

Probably thought they were smart enough to get away with it.  

[DCSaints_fan]

2 hours ago, No Excuses said:

The country they offered it to snitched on them to the FBI so I'm assuming it was an allied nation?

If I’m reading right, no foreign power was ever involved.  I think this may have been a honeypot operation by the FBI. 

[LadySkinsFan]

In reading the entire affidavit, the FBI in the country (Country 1) obtained a package from the country directly. Everything ensued from there. #6 in the affidavit.

 

The traitor had poached documents over a number of years, avoiding detection by security by avoiding the pitfalls given out during training by security on what to look for in people smuggling information out. The traitor proposed over 50 packets of information that he would pass along, totaling $5 million Monero, a cryptocurrency. 

 

I'm sure it was all about the money. He researched which country to approach and how things should work. The whole plan is detailed enough for the affidavit. Very interesting reading. I'm following this case for sure.

[Spaceman Spiff]

1 hour ago, PleaseBlitz said:

 

Probably thought they were smart enough to get away with it.  

 

Like most criminals.  What year did they teach you that analysis in law school, counselor?  

[Corcaigh]

I’d assume that the foreign nation already had the information and/or were not interested in someone they had not vetted.

 

Back in the day I did some work on the British Vanguard submarines that were a key part of their nuclear deterrent. The design included some new surface tile technology to make the 16000 ton displacement submarine much harder to detect. A minimum wage security guard snagged one of the tiles from the production facility and jumped on a train to London where he knocked on the door of the Soviet Embassy, hoping to sell the technology for big bucks. The Soviets handed him over to the UK police. It was said that one of the Soviet Embassy staff patted the poor misguided traitor on the head and told him “Son, if we wanted this information we’d already have it.”

Edited October 11, 2021 by Corcaigh

[Corcaigh]

 

2 hours ago, Destino said:

100k between the two drops and all it cost them was their freedom, being branded (rightly) as traitors forever, and essentially orphaning their two children.  Makes me wonder why they felt they needed the money so urgently.  Not that it would excuse any of this, just curious as to what motivated otherwise successful law abiding citizens to burn their own lives down.

 

A key factor for some of those involving in sending nuclear secrets to the Soviets during and shortly after World War II was not money. It was the belief that the West had too big of a technological advantage and that the military and politicians were going to kill millions of Soviets before they were an even greater threat and could defend themselves.
 

Quite a number of atomic scientists were only involved in the Manhattan Project (and other western countries nuclear programs) because everyone believed the Allied side had to get the bomb before Hitler.

 

Some clearly were in favor of sharing the technology once Hitler was defeated to prevent superpowers going to war again.

 

Edited October 11, 2021 by Corcaigh

[GoCommiesGo]

These people lived in our neighborhood, their kids went to our kids school. 
 

Crazy story and absolutely shocking. 

Edited October 11, 2021 by GoSkinsGo

[Barry.Randolphe]

EDIT: On second thought, here's who it likely was:

 

Only six countries currently operate nuclear-powered submarines — China, France, India, Russia, the UK and the US.

 

In one of his letters, he translated and provided English...so my guess is it was China

Edited October 12, 2021 by Barry.Randolphe

[Jabbyrwock]

Am I the only one disappointed that the criminals didnt have the basic decency to hide the nuclear submarine secrets in a sub sandwhich rather than a PB&J?  I mean, sure sure espionage, treason and all...but missing that level of dad joke is punishable by death in like 12 systems.

[Llevron]

12 hours ago, Barry.Randolphe said:

EDIT: On second thought, here's who it likely was:

 

Only six countries currently operate nuclear-powered submarines — China, France, India, Russia, the UK and the US.

 

In one of his letters, he translated and provided English...so my guess is it was China

 

My understanding is it was France. But it was more of a wink wink nudge nudge thing not anything explicit 

 

Edit: Which would explain why they told the FBI and didn't just take it. China would have taken it. 

Edited October 12, 2021 by Llevron

[tshile]

15 hours ago, Barry.Randolphe said:

Only six countries currently operate nuclear-powered submarines — China, France, India, Russia, the UK and the US.

And Australia is getting into the business. 

[gbear]

I thought the Rosenbergs were executed for stealing nuclear secrets for the U.S.S.R.  They are lucky to not be tried for treason with the death penalty on the table.