A US Navy nuclear engineer and his wife have been sentenced to nearly two decades behind bars for conspiring to sell classified information related to the design of nuclear warships to a foreign country in exchange for thousands of dollars in cryptocurrency.
The Justice Department announced Wednesday that Jonathan Toebbe, 44, of Annapolis, Maryland, was sentenced to more than 19 years. His wife, Diana Toebbe, 46, was sentenced to more than 21 years in prison.
The pair pleaded guilty in February to conspiracy and hoped to persuade a federal judge in West Virginia to sign off on proposed plea deals for lesser sentences. Judge Gina Groh rejected the deals saying it was not in the best interest of the country to accept the deals in which Jonathan Toebbe could have been sentenced to between 12 and 18 years in prison, while his wife could have been sentenced to up to three years in prison.
The Toebbes pleaded guilty again in September as part of new deals that exposed them to longer possible sentences, according to court documents.
The pair coordinated the delivery of encrypted SD cards containing classified information on nuclear submarines, specifically Virginia-class vessels, that they believed to be members of a foreign government in exchange for thousands of dollars in cryptocurrency, according to a criminal complaint.
Prosecutors said the couple went to great lengths to hide the SD cards at the dead-drop locations over several months, putting one SD card in a Saran-wrapped peanut butter sandwich, while others were hidden inside a pack of gum and a sealed Band-Aid wrap.
“The Toebbes conspired to sell classified defense information that would put the lives of our men and women in uniform and the security of the United States at risk,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen of the Department of Justice’s National Security Division.
