US Navy engineer admits selling sub secrets

The United States Justice Department said a US Navy engineer told a federal court on Monday that he tried to sell secrets about nuclear submarines to a foreign power.     

While legal documents did not name the country to which he tried to sell the information, they did imply it was a US ally whose main language is not English.

What are the allegations?

Prosecutors said Jonathan Toebbe, 43, had abused his access to top-secret government information, repeatedly selling details about submarine design elements and performance characteristics.

Toebbe, who was arrested more than four months ago with his wife Diana Toebbe, has pleaded guilty before a federal judge.

Over the course of a year, the couple, who lived in Annapolis, Maryland, allegedly sold sensitive information to an undercover agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation who had posed as a representative of a foreign power.

In exchange for entering his guilty plea, Toebbe is expected to be handed a prison sentence of between 12 1/2 to 17 1/2 years.

Toebbe was serving as a nuclear engineer on the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program, and had top secret security clearance and access to restricted information.

Spouse also implicated

The plea deal also incriminates Toebbe's wife, a teacher, who has so far maintained her innocence and tried to obtain her release to care for the couple's two teenage children. 

Diana Toebbe is accused of having "knowingly and voluntarily joined the conspiracy to communicate Restricted Data to another person with the intent to secure an advantage to a foreign nation," a court document said.

She allegedly committed "multiple overt acts in furtherance of the conspiracy, including acting as a lookout while Mr. Toebbe serviced three dead drops."

In one of the drops, sensitive information was said to have been stored on a memory card and was concealed inside half a peanut butter sandwich.

Officials said the plot was thwarted with involvement from the FBI, Department of Justice prosecutors, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service and the Department of Energy.

Attack submarines at center of diplomatic dispute

In a statement, the Justice Department said Toebbe had been working on the design of the reactors for Virginia-class submarines since 2012. 

The vessels are the latest generation of attack submersibles in the US fleet.

The submarine class was at the center of a diplomatic storm last September, when Australia canceled a mega-deal with France.

Instead, Canberra announced a strategic partnership with the United States and the UK.

rc/dj (AFP, AP, Reuters)