It's the kind of technology that was the subject of that recent deal that you may recall between the U.S., the U.K. This information certainly could help a foreign power build submarines equipped with nuclear propulsion systems. They cost $3 billion apiece, thereabouts. Court papers describe those submarines as fast attack submarines with the latest in stealth and weapons technology. Navy's Virginia class nuclear-powered submarine. Prosecutors say the information included schematic designs, operating parameters, stuff like that for the U.S. LUCAS: Well, according to court papers and the government, this was pretty serious stuff. So - OK, so what do we know about how - the kind of information he was allegedly trying to sell?
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MARTÍNEZ: A lot of peanut butter in the show today - don't know how to explain that. The thing is here, of course, the FBI was watching them as they allegedly did this. And in one instance, Toebbe allegedly wrapped this digital card in plastic and then put it inside half of a peanut butter sandwich that was left in a plastic bag at the dead drop. He allegedly hid them inside a Band-Aid package, a gum wrapper. In this case, prosecutors say Toebbe hid these digital cards inside things that were left at the dead drops. LUCAS: Well, these are secret hiding places that spies use to pass information. MARTÍNEZ: Got to find out more about dead drops. And then they got paid by the undercover FBI agents in cryptocurrency. And the FBI says his wife acted as a lookout on several occasions when Toebbe left these small packages of information.
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Court filings say that led to a series of exchanges in which Toebbe left small digital cards with thousands of pages of information on them in so-called dead drops. Court papers don't say which country it was, but the FBI posed as representatives of that unnamed country and went back and forth with Toebbe, communicating through encrypted channels. His wife, Diana, is a humanities teacher at a private school, and prosecutors say that she was in on this alleged scheme.Īccording to court papers, this whole thing started back in 2020, when the FBI got its hands on a package that prosecutors say Jonathan Toebbe had mailed to a foreign government seeking to establish a covert relationship to sell secret information in exchange for money. His focus at work has been on naval nuclear propulsion. He works as a nuclear engineer for the Navy with top-secret security clearance. RYAN LUCAS, BYLINE: So the couple, this is Jonathan Toebbe and his wife Diana. Who is this couple, and what are they accused of? Ryan, there are details in this complaint that really read like a spy novel. NPR justice correspondent Ryan Lucas joins us now to tell us all about the case. But instead of selling it to a foreign power, the Justice Department says the couple was caught in an FBI sting operation. It's their first court appearance since being charged with trying to sell military secrets to another country.
Navy and his wife are due in federal court in West Virginia today.
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