US Navy engineer, wife arrested for selling nuclear submarine secrets

US Navy nuclear engineer and his wife have been charged with trying to pass information about American nuclear-powered submarines to someone they thought was a foreign state but was actually an undercover FBI agent.

Jonathan Toebbe, 42, with access to military secrets had access to restricted data about naval nuclear technology and used that access to send a package to a foreign government on April 1, 2020. The Justice Department affidavit alleged that he began corresponding with someone he believed to be an agent of another country, but who was an undercover FBI agent. That country was not named in the court documents.

The FBI said in June, the undercover agent sent $10,000 in cryptocurrency to Toebbe, describing it as a sign of good faith and trust.

Toebbe was arrested in West Virginia on Saturday along with his wife, Diana, 45 after he had placed a removable memory card at a prearranged “dead drop” in the state, according to the Justice Department. The Navy has declined to comment.