In US, wife of Navy engineer too pleads guilty for 'selling Navy submarine secrets'

The wife of the former US Navy engineer, accused in the case of espionage, has pleaded guilty to allegedly selling United States Navy secrets abroad. Diana Toebbe, a 46-year-old Annapolis, Maryland school teacher, submitted her plea to the federal prosecutors just days after her husband Jonathan Toebbe, 43, also pleaded guilty to the espionage offense related to US nuclear-powered submarines to an undisclosed nation. Toebbe worked in the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program that gave him undeterred access to the United States military-sensitive designs for reactors on nuclear-powered warships.

Diana Toebbe is expected to serve over three years in prison, while her husband Jonathan Toebbe is likely to have a prison term of slightly more than 12 years if convicted. The plea requires the duo to assist the FBI in the recovery of $100,000 in crypto-currency during the investigation, CNN reported. Federal Magistrate Judge Robert Trumble accepted their plea. The judge will have the option to change the sentence than what was earlier decided by the prosecutors. The two accused agree to cooperate with investigators, including sitting for a polygraph exam if requested, including access to their electronic devices and bank accounts, according to the plea. Diana agreed to help authorities retrieve $100,000 in Monero cryptocurrency. 

Diana Toebbe served as 'lookout' during espionage: Court document 

Diana Toebbe has acknowledged that she served as a "lookout" during the espionage on the US Navy by selling unclassified information in June, July, and October last year. She and her husband pleaded guilty Friday in a federal courtroom in Martinsburg, West Virginia. Diana is guilty of one count of conspiracy to communicate restricted data and is being surveilled by the FBI. The duo accused in the spy case sent a foreign nation a package that offered to sell nuclear secrets, according to the criminal complaint seen by CNN. 

The two were arrested on October 9 last year at a location that was being tracked by United States investigative authorities. According to the court document, Toebbes delivered SD cards concealed in a saran-wrapped peanut butter sandwiches that allegedly contained classified information about US Navy’s nuclear submarines at the dead-drop locations. The secrets were handed to the undercover federal agents. The compromise of the declassified was carried out at two separate locations, one in West Virginia and one in Pennsylvania. The second time, the duo hid the data inside a packet of gum and a sealed Band-Aid wrapper on it before handing it over to the foreign sources.