Citing the couple’s “significant risk” to national security, U.S. District Judge Gina Groh sentenced Jonathan Toebe to more than 19 years and his wife, Diana Toebe, to nearly 22 years in prison. The couple, from Annapolis, Maryland, had claimed that their mental health struggles and alcohol problems had made them worried about America’s political climate, so they secretly sold $100,000 (£88,000) in cryptocurrency. Sentencing them in Charleston, West Virginia on Wednesday, Judge Groh said their story “reads like a crime novel or a movie script” and that “Jonathan Toebbe’s actions and greedy self-serving intentions put members of the military at sea and every citizen thereof. country in a vulnerable position and at risk of harm from adversaries”. Diana Toebbe, who admitted acting as a lookout for her husband and received an enhanced sentence for trying to send her husband two letters from prison. Her sentence was increased from just three years to over two decades. The letters, which were read out in court, were intercepted before they were delivered. “Right out of the movies” In one of them, which Mrs Toebbe told her husband to flush down the toilet after reading, she encouraged him to lie about her involvement in the scheme and say he “knew nothing about any of this”. The judge said she had no genuine remorse and did not accept responsibility for her actions. “This is an extraordinary story, straight out of the movies,” Judge Groh said. Before the sentencing, Jonathan Toebbe described his battles with anxiety and alcohol. Image: A Virginia-class attack submarine “I believed that my family was under terrible threat, that democracy itself was collapsing,” he said. The 44-year-old claimed the faith got the best of him and made him feel he had to take “swift action to try and save them from serious harm”. Prosecutors said Toebbe abused his access to top-secret government information and repeatedly sold details about the design and performance of Virginia-class submarines to someone he thought was a representative of a foreign government but was actually an undercover FBI agent. Dead Drops Peanut Butter Sandwiches Toebbe, 46, who taught at a private school in Maryland at the time of the couple’s arrest last October, admitted to acting as a lookout at several predetermined locations where memory cards containing the classified information had been left. The memory cards were hidden in items such as a gum wrapper and a peanut butter sandwich. None of the information was classified as top secret or classified, and it fell into a third category that is considered confidential, according to previous testimony. During a hearing last December, Diana Toebbe’s lawyer, Barry Beck, said the couple wanted to leave America because of their disdain for then-President Donald Trump. Read more Norway arrests university lecturer suspected of being a Russian spy During a search of the couple’s home, FBI agents found a garbage bag containing shredded documents, thousands of dollars in cash, valid children’s passports and a “go-bag” containing a USB flash drive and latex gloves, according to previous testimony . The FBI said the scheme began in April 2020, when Jonathan Toebbe sent a package of Navy documents to a foreign government and said he was interested in selling operations manuals, performance reports and other sensitive information. That package was obtained by the FBI in December 2020 through its legal attache’s office in an unspecified foreign country, setting off a months-long undercover operation. An FBI agent posing as a representative of a foreign government contacted Toebbe, eventually paying him in cryptocurrency for the information he offered. Judge Groh said around $54,000 (£47,000) of the cryptocurrency was recovered. He imposed fines of around $50,000 (£44,000) on each defendant.
