Jonathan Toebbe, a 44-year-old US Navy engineer, and his wife Diana, 46, were sentenced Wednesday to 19 and 21 years in prison, respectively. They were arrested in October 2021 and a few months later they pleaded guilty in this incredible military secrets sale case.
The judge gave the wife a longer sentence because she had tried to downplay her role and was slower to accept responsibility.
They “conspired to sell classified information, which would have endangered the men and women who wear the uniform, as well as the security of the United States,” Matthew Olsen, who oversees the national security archives, said in a news release. in the Department of Justice.
Jonathan Toebbe had been working, according to his court file, since 2012 on the design of the reactors for the Virginia-class submarines, the latest generation of attack submersibles for the US fleet, and in April 2020 he sent a package to a third country. with initial documents and instructions to make contact.
“I apologize for this bad translation in your language,” said the engineer in his message while promising to deliver “information of great value.”
the brazilian way
The judicial authorities never specified which country he had contacted, but according to the New York Timesit was Brazil.
The package had arrived in December 2020 at the attache of the US federal police in this country.
The FBI had then established contact with the engineer posing as a representative of this country who cooperated, even going so far as to place a recognition sign in his embassy in Washington to show Jonathan Toebbe that his interlocutor was not an investigator.
Jonathan Toebbe had received $100,000 in cryptocurrency payments between June and August, in exchange for which he handed over confidential information from the US Navy.
This data was contained on encrypted SD cards, deposited by the couple in prearranged locations and hidden in a peanut butter sandwich, a pack of gum, or a bandage wrapper.
Source: BFM TV
