WASHINGTON: A US couple has been arrested in the state of West Virginia for allegedly selling information on nuclear warships to what they believed was a foreign state, the Justice Department said Sunday.
Jonathan Toebbe, who worked as a nuclear engineer for the US Navy, and his wife Diana - both in their forties - were arrested by Federal Bureau of Investigation agents on Saturday and charged with violating the Atomic Energy Act in a criminal complaint, the Justice Department said in a statement.
For nearly a year, the couple "sold information known as restricted data concerning the design of nuclear powered warships to a person they believed was a representative of a foreign power," the statement said, adding that the recipient of the information was, in fact, an undercover FBI agent.
Jonathan Toebbe, who had access to restricted data on nuclear-powered warships through his work, collaborated with his wife to exchange data on submarine nuclear reactors for around $100,000 in cryptocurrency, the complaint affidavit alleges.
The affidavit says Toebbe in April 2020 mailed a package to a foreign government "containing a sample of restricted data and instructions for establishing a covert relationship," according to the statement.
According to the complaint, the FBI intercepted the package, and the undercover agent posed as a representative of the foreign government in order to establish a relationship with the couple.
The agent sent Jonathan Toebbe, who used the pseudonym "Alice," an email offering him a gift as thanks for the data. But Toebbe responded with caution, asking instead to set up a "dead drop" location and to be paid in cryptocurrency.
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