He said that authorities have yet to recover the $100,000 paid in cryptocurrency to the couple as part of the sting or the large amount of classified information they offered to the FBI agents, they added. Jonathan and Diana Toebbe pleaded guilty last month in the espionage case. The Toebbes allegedly sent a package containing sensitive information to a foreign government, who held onto the information for some time before turning it over to US authorities, who then began investigating its sender.įBI Special Agent Peter Olinits testified in the court about the measures taken by the Toebbes for operational security during their "dead drop" deliveries to the undercover FBI investigators, the report said. 6 Jonathan Toebbe, a Navy nuclear engineer, and his wife Diana faced a judge. Toebbe’s security clearance allowed him access to restricted data, according to the charging documents. Navy and his wife have been charged with trying to share some of the United States’ most closely held secrets on submarine technology with another. Jonathan Toebbe is an employee of the Department of the Navy, serving as a nuclear engineer with the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program, while his wife is a teacher at the Key School in Annapolis, according to her LinkedIn. The couple, Jonathan and Diana Toebbe, are accused of attempting to sell military secrets obtained through Jonathan's job as a US Navy nuclear engineer to what they believed to be a foreign government but was actually an FBI sting operation. WASHINGTON A nuclear engineer for the U.S. The memory card contained "militarily sensitive design elements, operating parameters and performance characteristics of Virginia-class submarine reactors," according to a federal court affidavit.Washington, October 21 (ANI/Sputnik): A couple charged with espionage for the alleged sale of classified nuclear submarine intelligence to what they believed to be a foreign government pleaded not guilty in a US court, CBS Baltimore reported. Toebbe, with the aid of his 45-year-old wife, allegedly sold secrets to an undercover FBI agent posing as a foreign official over the course of several months, the Justice Department said.Īt one point, Toebbe hid a digital memory card containing documents about submarine nuclear reactors in half a peanut butter sandwich at a "dead drop" location in West Virginia while his wife acted as lookout, the Justice Department said. According to court documents, Awwad began working for the Department of the Navy in February 2014 as a civilian general engineer in the Nuclear Engineering and Planning Department at the Norfolk. Navy Engineer Sentenced for Attempted Espionage Passed Information on Latest Aircraft Carrier to Undercover Agent The dead drop area in a Virginia park that was used by Navy civilian engineer. The judge told them they qualify for court-appointed legal counsel. The overarching mission of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) is to prevent terrorism, reduce crime and protect secrets, with a very high priority on protecting vital information such as the design and operation of nuclear-powered warships, said Special Agent in Charge Michelle Kramer of the NCIS Office of Special Projects. No lawyer was present for the couple at Tuesday's initial 15-minute court appearance. A plea hearing has been scheduled for a Navy nuclear engineer accused of trying to sell information about nuclear-powered warships to a foreign country. The Toebbes will remain in jail while they await Friday's hearing. A plea hearing has been scheduled for a Navy nuclear engineer accused of trying to sell information about nuclear-powered warships to a foreign country. Magistrate Judge Robert Trumble scheduled a court hearing for Friday on the Justice Department's request that the Toebbes be jailed while they await trial. The Justice Department did not name the country involved. The Toebbes did not speak other than to briefly answer the judge's questions, indicating they understood their rights. WASHINGTON (AP) A Navy nuclear engineer with access to military secrets has been charged with trying to pass information about the design of American nuclear-powered submarines to someone. Toebbe, 42, a nuclear engineer with top-secret security clearance, is accused of sending Navy documents to an unnamed foreign entity in 2020, along with instructions for how to obtain additional information. WASHINGTON In 2020, a United States naval engineer and his wife made the fateful decision to try to sell some of America’s most closely guarded military secrets, the technology behind the.
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