Navy nuclear engineer pleads guilty to conspiracy count in scheme to sell US naval secrets to a fore
US Navy nuclear engineer Jonathan Toebbe pleaded guilty to one felony count in federal court Monday afternoon, four months after he and his wife were arrested and charged with trying to sell classified information about nuclear submarines to a foreign country in exchange for millions of dollars of cryptocurrency. Toebbe, 43, will face between 12 and 18 years in prison, according to the plea agreement read aloud by prosecutors in a federal courtroom in Martinsburg, West Virginia. He was initially charged with three federal felonies, each carrying up to life in prison.
Federal Magistrate Judge Robert Trumble accepted Toebbe's guilty plea and another federal judge will sentence him at a later date. That judge will have the option to impose a different sentence than agreed upon by Toebbe and prosecutors. Toebbe will remain in jail until his sentencing date, which has not yet been set.
In court Monday, Toebbe admitted that he had "conspired with Diana Toebbe," his wife, "to transfer restricted data to a foreign country" with "the intent to injure the United States." Diana Toebbe, who remains in jail, has also been charged with three federal felony counts. She has pleaded not guilty. Diana Toebbe has repeatedly tried to get released on bond, saying she did not know about her husband's plans, though she accompanied him to several dead-drops.
Toebbe first sent a package to an undisclosed foreign government in April 2020 offering to sell nuclear secrets, and that government turned over the offer letter to the FBI, according to the criminal complaint. An FBI agent responded to Toebbe several months later and corresponded with him, eventually entering into an agreement with Toebbe to exchange thousands of dollars in cryptocurrency for the nuclear secrets.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/14/politics/navy-nuclear-secrets-conspiracy/
