The potential client country to which a Maryland couple attempted to sell U.S. nuclear submarine secrets has been revealed in a new report.
Prosecutors kept the identity of the country under wraps for months, but a report Tuesday from the New York Times disclosed Brazil as the nation at the center of the case, and unfortunately for the duo, Brasilia went straight to the FBI after it was approached.
“It’s not morally defensible either. We convince ourselves it is fine, but really isn’t either,” Jonathan Toebbe wrote in a text to his wife about the prospects of selling the secrets, according to the outlet. She responded, “I have no problem with any of it. I feel no loyalty to abstractions.”
RUSSIAN AMERICAN CHARGED WITH ACTING AS SPY
The duo pleaded guilty to espionage charges last month. The husband faces up to 17 years in prison, with the wife facing up to three, the Justice Department announced last October.
Prosecutors allege that the couple began ruminating about plans to sell U.S. nuclear submarine secrets to a foreign country in 2018. After mulling over the decision for months, they decided to search for a country to sell the secrets to in exchange for as much as $5 million in cryptocurrency. They planned to leave the United States after sealing the deal, prosecutors alleged. Jonathan Toebbe was serving as a nuclear engineer in the U.S. Navy at the time.
U.S. officials wanted to release the name of the country to which the Toebbes made the offer, but Brazilian officials wanted that kept under wraps, a source told the New York Times. Several people involved in the investigation as well as a senior Brazilian official disclosed the nation’s identity.
Text messages indicated that the couple believed selling such secrets to an adversarial nation like Russia or China would be too much of a moral overstep. The duo figured that Brazil was eager enough for the secrets and rich enough to afford it while not being too hostile to the U.S. Jonathan Toebbe sent a letter to Brazil’s military intelligence agency in April 2020 offering the secrets, but the official forwarded it over to the FBI, according to court filings. The court documents only refer to “Country 1,” but the New York Times’s reporting makes it clear that the country was Brazil.
After receiving the tip, FBI officials launched an undercover operation to expose the Toebbes. An undercover agent posed as a Brazilian official and coaxed Jonathan Toebbe into turning over key secrets, sending him money in return, according to prosecutors.
Jonathan Toebbe offered to provide technical support as well, touting his years of experience in the Navy, court documents show. He had swindled thousands of classified documents detailing the vessels’ nuclear reactors from the Washington Navy Yard over several years, according to prosecutors.
When the FBI procured enough evidence, authorities arrested the couple in a sting operation in West Virginia.
Diana Toebbe aided her husband in these efforts by exchanging ideas with him and serving as a lookout when he dropped off an SD card for the undercover agent, prosecutors alleged. Her lawyers have argued that prosecutors have taken key text messages out of context, according to the New York Times. Sentencing is slated to take place in August.
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The U.S. government is tight-lipped about the technology that powers its nuclear submarines, withholding that information from some of its closest allies. Last year, the U.S. penned an agreement that gave Australia access to some of its nuclear secrets — much to the chagrin of France. Prior to that agreement, the U.S. only shared those secrets with the United Kingdom, per the New York Times.
Brazil has been trying to bolster its nuclear technology for years. Last month, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro told Russian President Vladimir Putin that the country was interested in cooperating with Russia on nuclear technology, Reuters reported. Despite this, Brazil has cultivated close ties with the U.S., and the acquisition of such secrets could have jeopardized bilateral relations.
