Wife of Navy nuclear engineer pleads guilty to espionage-related offense

Feb. 19 (UPI) -- The wife of a U.S. Navy engineer has pleaded guilty to espionage-related charges just days after her husband pleaded guilty to the same offense.

Diana Toebbe, of Annapolis, Md., pleaded guilty to conspiracy to communicate restricted data to a foreign nation about the design of a nuclear-powered warship on Friday, the Justice Department said in a statement.

Her husband Jonathan Toebbe, who had an active national security clearance as a Navy engineer granting him access to the restricted data, pleaded guilty to the same charge on Monday.

The couple was arrested in West Virginia in October after they sold restricted data multiple times to an FBI agent working undercover for almost a year in return for cryptocurrency payments, according to a Justice Department statement at the time.

The arrests were made by agents with the FBI and Naval Criminal Investigative Service, officials said. The Toebbe's were then charged in a criminal complaint alleging violations of the Atomic Energy Act.

The Justice Department cited violations including a "good faith" payment of $10,000 on June 8, 2021 -- and payments of $20,000 and $70,000 in June and August involving the sale of restricted design data on submarine nuclear reactors.

The data was exchanged through a process where the two people don't have to physically meet, called a "dead drop," according to the Justice Department.

Instead of actually meeting, the data was placed at pre-arranged locations. The data was also placed on memory cards and concealed in a sandwich one time and a chewing gum package another time, and decryption keys for the cards were disclosed after payments were made.