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FBI arrests Maryland couple for attempted sale of restricted nuclear submarine data

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on Saturday arrested a Maryland couple for allegedly attempting to sell “restricted data” about the design of US nuclear submarines to a foreign country, the Washington Examiner reports. US Department of the Navy nuclear engineer Jonathan Toebbe and his wife, Diana, have been charged under the Atomic Energy Act and are due to appear before a West Virginia court on October 12.

For a year, the Toebbes allegedly sold the restricted information to someone they believed was a representative for another country, the Examiner reports. However, the person they “sold” to was actually an undercover FBI agent.

According to the Department of Justice (DOJ), Jonathan Toebbe sent a sample package of “restricted data” to the undercover agent in April 2020, the Examiner reports. Toebbe then began communicating with the FBI agent through encrypted email. The correspondence went on for a number of months and an agreement was made to sell the information for thousands of dollars in cryptocurrency. On June 8, the undercover agent transferred $10,000 in cryptocurrency to Toebbe as a “good faith” payment.

Moreover, the DOJ alleges, Toebbe and his wife then traveled to West Virginia, where they hid an SD card inside a sandwich at a “dead drop” location for the “representative” to collect, the Examiner reports. This process was carried out two more times, on August and October 3. The couple received a “good faith” payment each time.

The FBI arrested on their third trip to West Virginia on October 9, the Examiner reports. They will appear at a federal court in Martinsburg, West Virginia on October 12, the DOJ said.