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Former US Navy nuclear engineer Jonathan Toebbe and his wife Diana have been charged and arrested for selling secret nuclear submarine information to a foreign nation.
The couple was arrested in West Virginia on Saturday, 9 October 2021, after a sting operation conducted by an undercover FBI agent posing as a foreign country operative. According to court documents, Jonathan Toebbe attempted to pass secret information through memory cards for nearly a year.
He was ultimately arrested along with his wife after allegedly placing a data card at an arranged “dead drop” location in West Virginia last week. As per the Department of Justice, the pair have been taken into custody in Jefferson County on charges of espionage for violating the Atomic Energy Act.
Everything about Jonathan Toebbe and his wife Diana
Diana and Jonathan Toebbe are a couple based in Annapolis, Maryland. The pair share two children together. The family reportedly stays in a three-bedroom $430,000 home within the Hillsmere Estates neighborhood.
Biographical information released by officials states that Jonathan Toebbe is a former naval officer associated with the US Navy since 2012.
The 42-year-old worked as a specialized officer on naval nuclear propulsion projects and had a top-secret security clearance. He was assigned to the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program, aka the Naval Reactors.
Before joining the service in 2021, Jonathan Toebbe attended the Officer Training Command in Newport, Rhode Island. He then worked as a nuclear engineering officer in Pittsburgh and Northern Virginia.
Jonathan Toebbe served as a lieutenant in 2016 and ended active service in 2017. He worked as a human resources officer until December 2020.
He was previously awarded with the National Defense Service Medal, the Navy/Marine Corps Commendation Medal and the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal. However, Jonathan Toebbe parted ways with the US military on 19 December 2020.
Meanwhile, Diana Toebbe is a humanities teacher at Key School in Annapolis. School authorities confirmed that 45-year-old worked as a faculty of upper school and has been associated with the educational institution for the past 10 years.
The couple is making headlines for being caught in a case of espionage over the attempted sale of secret nuclear submarine information. Diana has been suspended from her role at Key School for an indefinite period of time until the end of the pending investigation.
According to The Baltimore Sun, head of the institution Matthew Nespole mentioned that the school was unaware of Diana’s involvement in the criminal activities along with her husband. He said the school was shocked by the incident and will be cooperating with the investigation.
The outlet also mentioned that neighbors said the Toebbe family mostly kept to themselves and did not interact much with other local residents in the area.
A look into Jonathan Toebbe and Diana’s criminal investigation
As per FBI reports obtained by The Daily Mail, Jonathan Toebbe began his scheme in April 2020 by sending a package to a foreign government containing a sample of secret data about Virginia-class nuclear warships and a letter with the proposal of selling further information.
The letter to the foreign government read:
"I apologize for this poor translation into your language. Please forward this letter to your military intelligence agency. I believe this information will be of great value to your nation. This is not a hoax."
Officials said in court documents that the package contained naval documents, a letter and an SD card with instructions on how the country should respond to the proposal:
"The package contained U.S. Navy documents, a letter containing instructions, and an SD card containing specific instructions on how COUNTRY1 should respond using an encrypted communication platform, and additional documents."
The package was obtained by FBI agents in December 2020 who then started communicating with Jonathan Toebbe as a foreign country official. Following months of negotiations and months of email communication, the former naval engineer agreed to provide the first set of data in exchange for $10000 in cryptocurrency.
On 26 June 2021, Jonathan and his wife drove to a location in West Virginia and dropped a 16 GB blue memory card, wrapped in plastic, inside a peanut butter sandwich. The latter was reportedly on a “lookout” while the former completed the task.
As reported by NPR, investigators said that the SD card had sensitive military design elements, operating parameters and performance-related characteristics of Virginia-class submarine reactors. The court has described the submarines as “nuclear-powered cruise-missile fast-attack submarines”.
The FBI continued to exchange similar undercover negotiations with Jonathan Toebbe over the next few months. In a second deal worth nearly $70,000 in cryptocurrency, the ex-navy official agreed to send another package in a “dead-drop” location on August 2021.
The second package was dropped in eastern Virginia wrapped inside a chewing gum package. Jonathan provided the decryption key to the memory card after receiving the hefty amount from the FBI. Documents suggest the card has several schematic designs for Virginia-class nuclear submarines.
Jonathan Toebbe wrote in a message during the delivery that he collected the secret information while working a normal job to avoid suspicion:
“This information was slowly and carefully collected over several years in the normal course of my job to avoid attracting attention and smuggled past security checkpoints a few pages at a time… I no longer have access to classified data so unfortunately cannot help you obtain other files. There is only one other person I know is aware of our special relationship, and I trust that person absolutely.”
The FBI believes the person referred to in the letter is possibly Jonathan’s wife, Diana. It was also mentioned that Jonathan was ready to leave the US within a short period in case of emergency requirements and asked the foreign country to retract him and his wife from the country:
“Should that ever become necessary, I will be forever grateful for your help extracting me and my family. I surmise the first step would be unannounced travel to a safe third country with plans to meet your colleagues. We have passports and cash set aside for this purpose.”
However, the couple were arrested when they attempted to leave behind another package near Jefferson County on Saturday. Jonathan reportedly expressed his doubts over secrecy and security during his negotiations with the FBI but ended up trusting the officials after the significant payment and a secret signal from the country’s Washington embassy.
Jonathan Toebbe and his wife have been convicted with “conspiracy to communicate restricted data” and “communication of restricted data.” The pair is set to appear in federal court in Martinsburg for their initial hearing on Tuesday, 12 October 2021.
