Navy Engineer Pleads Guilty to Selling Submarine Secrets

Washington — 

A Navy nuclear engineer pleaded guilty Monday to trying to pass information about American nuclear-powered warships to someone he thought was a representative of a foreign government but who was actually an undercover FBI agent.

Jonathan Toebbe, 43, pleaded guilty in federal court in Martinsburg, West Virginia, to a single count of conspiracy to communicate restricted data. The sentencing range agreed to by lawyers calls for a potential punishment between roughly 12 years and 17 years in prison.

Toebbe and his wife, Diana, were arrested in October after prosecutors said he abused his access to top-secret government information and repeatedly sold details about the design elements and performance characteristics of Virginia-class submarines.

Toebbe acknowledged during the plea hearing to conspiring to pass classified information to a foreign government in exchange for money with the intent to “injure the United States.”

“Yes, your honor,” Toebbe said when asked if he considered himself guilty.

The FBI has said the scheme began in April 2020, when Jonathan Toebbe sent a package of Navy documents to a foreign government and wrote that he was interested in selling to that country operations manuals, performance reports and other sensitive information. That package was obtained by the FBI in December 2020 through its legal attaché office in the unspecified foreign country. That set off a monthslong undercover operation in which an agent posing as a representative of a foreign country made contact with Toebbe and agreed to pay thousands of dollars in cryptocurrency for the information Toebbe was offering.

Diana Toebbe was accused of serving as a lookout at several prearranged “dead-drop” locations at which her husband deposited memory cards containing government secrets, concealing them in objects such as a chewing gum wrapper and a peanut butter sandwich. She has pleaded not guilty and the case against her remains pending.

The country to which Jonathan Toebbe was looking to sell the information has not been identified in court documents and was not disclosed in court during the plea hearing Monday.

Toebbe, who as part of his job had a top-secret security clearance, agreed as part of the plea deal to help federal officials with locating all classified information in his possession, as well as the roughly $100,000 in cryptocurrency that was paid to him by the FBI.

FBI agents who searched the couple’s Annapolis, Maryland, home found a trash bag of shredded documents, thousands of dollars in cash, valid children’s passports and a “go-bag” containing a USB flash drive and latex gloves.

Engineer Diego Lozano, kidnapped in Norte de Santander, is released - Other Cities - Colombia

On January 13, the kidnapping of the Engineer Diego Lozano in the oil well 188 of Shark. That day two armed men, apparently from the Farc dissidents, would have camouflaged themselves in a vehicle that takes food to the well, threatening the driver.

(In context: Engineer was kidnapped at an oil well in Tibú, Norte de Santander)

This Friday, the company Consultec confirmed the release de Lozano: “Diego is doing well and was assessed by Ecopetrol’s medical department, who found him in good condition,” the statement read.

According to the document, the engineer arrived at dawn on February 4, at 1:15 am, at Tibu Ecopetrol Complex in the company of the municipal representative, Ecopetrol officials and a member of the Workers’ Union (USO).

Lozano “will travel in the morning to Cucuta where he will be valued again by the authorities and where his family will receive him,” says the company.

(You can consult: In Tibú, Norte de Santander, they marched to ask for the freedom of Diego Lozano)

Consultec thanked the entities and organizations that made the return of the engineer possible. In their communiqué, they mention the Tibú ombudsman, the USO and the Church, the ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross), the Ombudsman’s Office, advisors, the companies Ecopetrol, Campetrol and Acipet.

Image of the liberation of engineer Lozano.

“We call on the entire industry to unite in management and that this does not happen again, we do not want any other engineer, any other family and any other company to go through what we went through in the last 22 days,” says the company.

On the day of the kidnapping, the two men -camouflaged in a vehicle that takes food to the well, threatening the driver- they passed the security that is in the access to the well. They arrived at the place and with firearms they took the engineer Lozano, who was in charge of the Well.

Ecopetrol, as soon as it learned of the fact, rejected the action and indicated that “the worker was removed from his work site by armed men, while he was carrying out work related to the process of abandoning well T 888K. After interrupting his work, he was threatened and forced to board a vehicle, which subsequently took an unknown direction”.

(Keep reading: Arauca: armed men entered the house of a community leader and kidnapped him)

According to the investigations, the action was carried out by individuals who identified themselves as members of the 33rd front of the Farc dissidents. This information is being validated by the authorities.