RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – A US Navy engineer and his wife tried to sell technical secrets of a nuclear submarine to the Brazilian government, says the newspaper “The New York Times” in a report published on March 15. The daily cites as sources a Brazilian government official and other people linked to the investigation in the USA.
Jonathan Toebbe, 42, and his wife, Diana, 45, were arrested in the US state of West Virginia in October. They allegedly tried to sell the data of a nuclear submarine project hidden in a peanut butter sandwich to someone they believed to represent another country. Now it has come to light that this country is Brazil.
According to the senior Brazilian official quoted by the New York Times and others familiar with the investigation, Toebbe approached the Brazilian government almost two years ago with an offer of thousands of pages of classified documents about nuclear reactors that he had stolen from the US.
Only the plan went wrong right off the bat. After Toebbe sent a message offering the secrets to Brazil in April 2020, Brazilian authorities tipped off the FBI attaché at the American embassy.
An undercover FBI agent then posed as a Brazilian employee to gain Toebbe’s trust and convince him to deposit the documents at a location chosen by the investigators. The suspect eventually agreed to provide documents and offered technical assistance to Brazil’s nuclear submarine program, using classified information he had stolen working for the US Navy.
After months of negotiation, the couple made a deal to share secret information for approximately US$100,000 in cryptocurrencies.
In June 2021, Jonathan and Diana Toebbe traveled to West Virginia to deliver the data. Diana merely watched as Jonathan “placed an SD card hidden inside a peanut butter sandwich” at an agreed-upon location, the statement said.
After the agent took the card, he handed over the payment and was given a decryption key to access the files. On the card was restricted data “related to underwater nuclear reactors.”
After that, Toebbe made a second shipment in August – this time hidden inside a packet of chewing gum – with more confidential data. FBI agents arrested the couple during a third sale of information.
The couple, who lived in Annapolis, Maryland, was arrested in October and pleaded guilty to espionage charges. He could face up to 17 and a half years in prison and she up to three years.