The case arose when the FBI received a package earlier this year containing a letter in which naval engineer Jonathan Toebbe offered his services as a spy. As proof, he sent data on American nuclear submarines. “Forward this letter to your military intelligence. I think this information will be of great value to your country. This is not a joke,” he wrote. The letter also contained instructions on how to contact him.
The FBI is keeping a secret to which foreign power the letter was addressed. It may be a friendly nation, since an employee passed the stuff on to the FBI. But it could also have been an American informant inside another embassy.
An FBI agent immediately contacted the aspiring spy to discuss the financial reward and methods by which he could pass classified information to him.
Signal from embassy
To assure him that he was indeed doing business with the foreign power, the FBI promised he would get a signal from that country’s embassy in Washington. How the FBI managed that is unclear, but apparently it was enough for Toebbe to go through with the operation.
The engineer worked for a year and a half in the office of the highest-ranking US naval officer and had access to the most closely kept secrets. Initially, he asked $100,000 for his information, but eventually agreed to an initial payment of $10,000 in bitcoins. In return, he sent his client a 16 GB memory card with secrets, hidden between two peanut butter sandwiches.
Attack Submarines
The classified information would have mainly related to the nuclear propulsion of Virginia-class attack submarines. There is a lot of interest in such technology because it involves propulsion systems that allow submarines to travel long distances underwater and are difficult to detect. In addition, the reactors run on highly enriched uranium, which is also suitable for the production of nuclear weapons.
Australia may gain access to this highly sensitive technology through the recent Aukus Defense Pact between the US, UK and Australia.
According to the American media, the naval engineer had apparently not eaten much of the real spy craft. At the appointed places where he had to leave his packages of classified information, he and his wife were clearly visible to the FBI agents. Finally, last weekend, the FBI decided to raid the couple’s home in Annapolis, which is home to the US’s premier naval academy.
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