A Maryland couple pleaded guilty for the second time Tuesday to federal charges of trying to sell secrets about US submarine nuclear propulsion systems to another country.
Jonathan and Diana Toebbe, aged 43 and 46 respectively, first pleaded guilty in February, but the judge threw out plea bargains. guilty plea in August after determining that the requested sentences were too low, reported ABC News.
At the time of the guilty plea, the couple admitted that they sent a package to a foreign government, and listed a return address in Pittsburgh that had restricted data and instructions to establish a relationship to purchase additional restricted data.
Jonathan added that he began communicating with someone he thought was a foreign government representative, but was actually an undercover US agent. the FBI.
In June 2021, the undercover agent sent $10,000 dollars in cryptocurrencies to Thoebbe as a “good faith” payment.
Weeks later, the couple traveled to a place in West Virginia. Upon arrival, Jonathan Toebbe placed an SD card hidden inside half a peanut butter sandwich in a pre-arranged location, prosecutors said
After retrieving the SD card, the agent sent Jonathan a payment of $43,000 dollars in cryptocurrencies, and in exchange, the subject sent the decryption key for the SD card by mail. Review of the card revealed that it had restricted data related to underwater nuclear reactors, the indictment said.
Diana Toebbe pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiracy to communicate data, acknowledging that she voluntarily joined to a conspiracy with her husband, who was a nuclear engineer in the United States Navy to sell secrets to a foreign country, which according to ABC News, was identified as Brazil.
The new plea agreement seemed to require a sentence of about 12 years in prison for Diana, four times more than the previous agreement, which was accepted by Judge Robert Trumble, who warned that another judge could determine whether or not the new sentence terms were sufficient.
For his part, Jonathan Toebbe pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to communicate restricted data, pursuant to an agreement that calls for a sentence of up to 17 years in prison.
Jonathan had issued a letter to the Brazilian intelligence service in April 2020, in which he declared the desire to sell documents with information from the United States Navy, which was marked as confidential, which included digital media files with technical details, operations manuals, printouts and performance reports, according to the accusation documents.