With all due apologies tothe Forbidden Sandwich — the feds may have discovered the world ’s most dangerous sammie .
ZDNet reported on Monday , cite a criminal complaintreleased on Sundayby theDepartment of Justice , that former U.S. Navy nuclear engineer Jonathan Toebbe and his partner Diana Toebbe set about to betray Restricted - division data about nuclear warships to an unnamed strange administration for cryptocurrency . To do so , prosecuting officer allege , the Toebbes set up multiple numb drops with SD cards check atomic data , with the first of them hidden inside a monkey nut butter sandwich .
Jonathan Toebbe , 42 , a former Navy atomic technology officer and lieutenant who result active obligation for the service in 2017 , worked on the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program and had memory access to large amounts of data on nuclear - powered warship . An FBI special agent wrotein the complaintin U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia that he attempted to sell a laundry lean of data on the watercraft , including non - public technical specs :
The Virginia-class nuclear submarine USS Illinois (SSN 786), seen here returning to Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in September 2021.Photo: Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Michael B. Zingaro / United States Navy (AP)
Toebbe worked with and had access to information concerning naval nuclear actuation including selective information come to to military sensitive design elements , operating parameters , and functioning characteristics of the reactor for nuclear - powered warships .
While Toebbe was no longer on active duty , he rest a human imagination officer in the reserves until December 2020 and had his security measure clearances renewed in March of that year . ( HisLinkedIn pageis still active . ) The FBI federal agent wrote in the ill that in December 2020 , the agency ’s legal attache in “ COUNTRY1 ” get a package that the nation ’s example said they had receive in April 2020 from an unidentified company seek to set up contact . That package moderate “ printout , digital media files hold back technical item , operations manuals , and performance reports , ” as well as a letter state the sender ’s intention to trade secrets and an SD card containing information on how to respond .
The missive , which was charge on April 1 ( also have sex as April Fool ’s daylight ) with a reappearance address in Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania , allegedly stated :
I apologize for this poor interlingual rendition into your words . Please forward this letter to your military intelligence authority . I believe this information will be of great value to your nation . This is not a hoax .
The prank was on the sender , as “ COUNTRY1 ” had apparently reported the espionage offer to the FBI . Agents subsequently made tangency with accounts on encrypted e-mail service Protonmail in recent December 2020 , as apprize in the original varsity letter . According to the particular agent who write the complaint , the someone react by asking for $ 100,000 equivalent in the Monero cryptocurrency , after which they would upload the information to a “ secure cloud storage account , encrypted with the paint I have provided you . ” The FBI anticipate by asking for the wannabe spy to allow for an SD wit containing the data at a “ neutral drib localisation . ”
The sender was hesitating , grant to the complaint , after which the FBI assuaged their concerns by arranging to exhibit a signal at a building affiliated with “ COUNTRY1 ” in Washington , D.C. , over Memorial Day weekend in 2021 . The FBI subsequently paid them $ 10,000 in Monero to clear their trust . Agents coiffe for a dead drop in West Virginia on June 26 , after which they keep Jonathan Toebbe approach the site and leave a 16 GB SanDisk “ Mount Rushmore State card … wrapped in charge card and set between two slice of bread on a one-half of a goober pea butter sandwich . ” His wife , Diana Toebbe , allegedly acted as a lookout . The complaint state the FBI then make up the Toebbes another $ 20,000 in Monero for them to send on the decoding key for the “ sample . ”
In a content provide on an South Dakota circuit card during another drop in July , this time hide in “ a sealed Band - Aid wrapper with a Band - economic aid inside a clear Zip Lock grip , ” the Toebbes allegedly asked for a total of $ 5 million in Monero . Specifically , the ill says they asked for the cryptocurrency to be dissever into payments of $ 100,000 tantamount each for 50 separate package collectively containing thousands of pages of atomic datum . In one communication to the FBI , the charge continued , Toebbe explained this musical arrangement as necessary to assure the feds were n’t just slipping him piffling Johnny Cash out of a bait store :
The amount per transaction is , in part a security criterion . As you noted in your missive , US . protection forces are lazy . They also have circumscribed budgets . decoy of ] 0,000 or 20,000 USD to capture an agentive role are within their normal activities . 100,000 USD and more ? They may tender it , but they will not have such a tumid amount . New reports reassert this is a vulgar tactic used by US . security department forces to scupper agents . Please do not be offended by this , but your generousness so far also matches exactly an adversaries [ sic ] belike play to snare me .
We can exchange multiple packages at a metre , ifyour superiors are well-fixed with this musical arrangement . For security , I would strongly prefer not to make 50 disjoined drop cloth to nail our business .
strangely enough , the FBI finish up paying the Toebbes another $ 70,000 in Monero for the decipherment key to a third dead drop entrust in a package of chewing gum in August , bringing the total to $ 100,000 .
The contents of the data handed over so far included schematics for the $ 3 billion Virginia - class atomic submarine , which ZDNet noted is expect to remain in service until at least the year 2060 . The technology used in that model was recentlyat the centerof a ( very amusing)international spat between the U.S. and France . The U.S. and Britain signed a deal with Australia to help it train atomic submarines , infuriating the government of France , which had its own $ 66 billion mountain with Australia ruin by the announcement . The Gallic government activity discombobulate a set andwithdrew its ambassadorsfrom the U.S. and Australia , though Australian officials remained intransigent they had communicate to the French their“deep and sculpt concerns”over the diesel - power Gallic hoagy they had primitively been contrive to corrupt .
The feds arrested the Toebbes on Oct. 9th . The two stand accused of multiple charges of spoil the Atomic Energy Act , admit cabal and communicating restricted data point .
allot to theBaltimore Sun , neighbour of the Toebbes described a horde of police force including more than 15 cars and at least 25 Union federal agent sweeping through the defendant ’ home . FBI agents also conducted interviews with neighbor and “ ransacked ” a white Mini Cooper of everything including its seats and GPS information processing system , locals told the paper .
The Sun reported the Toebbes are schedule to appear in court in Martinsburg , West Virginia , on Oct. 12 .
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