Wife of Naval engineer pleads guilty to trying to sell submarine secretsBy Patrick Reilly
February 18, 2022
The wife of a US Navy engineer pleaded guilty Friday to conspiring with her husband in a plot to sell secret information about nuclear submarines to a foreign country, authorities said.
Diana Toebbe, 46, admitted to acting as the lookout while hubby Jonathan Toebbe left memory cards hidden in items such as a peanut butter sandwich and a packet of gum at three “dead drop” locations over several months in 2021, the Department of Justice said.
Jonathan Toebbe, also 46, pleaded guilty on Monday. The couple was arrested in October by FBI agents following a yearlong sting operation.
According to court documents, Jonathan — a nuclear engineer with top-secret security clearance — sent a package of restricted Navy documents and other materials to an unnamed foreign country in April 2020, along with instructions for how to obtain additional information.
Over the course of several months, Toebbe, with the help of his teacher wife, allegedly peddled additional military secrets to an undercover FBI agent posing as a foreign official in exchange for $100,000 in cryptocurrency.
Toebbe worked in the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program with top-security clearance, giving him access to military-sensitive designs for reactors on nuclear powered warships.
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Source:
https://nypost.com/2022/02/18/wife-of-naval-engineer-pleads-guilty-to-trying-to-sell-secrets/