US naval engineer, wife tried to sell nuclear secrets to Brazil

[Judi Lynn]

Source: New York Times


By JULIAN E. BARNES, ANDRÉ SPIGARIOL, JACK NICAS AND ADAM GOLDMAN
THE NEW YORK TIMES |
MAR 15, 2022 AT 7:26 PM

WASHINGTON — In 2020, a U.S. naval engineer and his wife made the fateful decision to try to sell some of America’s most closely guarded military secrets, the technology behind the nuclear reactors that power the U.S. submarine fleet.

. . .

The engineer appeared to believe that soliciting U.S. adversaries like Russia or China was, morally, a bridge too far, according to text messages released in court. Instead, Jonathan and Diana Toebbe thought of a country that was rich enough to buy the secrets, not hostile to the United States and, most importantly, increasingly eager to acquire the very technology they were selling: Brazil.

The identity of the nation approached by the Toebbes has until now remained shielded by federal prosecutors and other government officials. But, according to a senior Brazilian official and other people briefed on the investigation, Jonathan Toebbe approached Brazil nearly two years ago with an offer of thousands of pages of classified documents about nuclear reactors that he had stolen from the U.S. Navy Yard in Washington over the course of several years.

The plan backfired almost as soon as it began. After Jonathan Toebbe sent a letter offering the secrets to Brazil’s military intelligence agency in April 2020, Brazilian officials handed the letter over to the FBI legal attaché in the country.



Read more: https://www.chicagotribune.com/nation-world/ct-aud-nw-nyt-submarine-spy-couple-20220316-znh35po4eneqxjqtvabt4rnr5i-story.html

[Karadeniz]

1. Thank you, Brazil!

[Kittycatkat]

2. You sell nuclear secrets to Brazil, because you think it's wrong to sell to Russia?

Brazil could sell the docs you gave them to Russia!

[progree]

3. Here's an earlier story about it from February 14

Ex-Navy nuclear engineer pleads guilty to selling submarine secrets, NBCNews, February 14, 2022

Jonathan Toebbe was accused of hiding memory cards containing the sensitive information inside peanut butter sandwiches and other items.

https://www.nbcnews.com/investigations/ex-navy-engineer-accused-selling-submarine-secrets-pleads-guilty-rcna16166

(in case it rang a bell - it sounded vaguely familiar to me)

[JudyM]

6. Yes, same here. Thanks for this.

[Martin68]

4. OMG! We can't let Brazil know our "naval secrets!"

Oh, my. It looks like they weren't interested. Too bad.

[Calista241]

5. So I have followed this story for quite a while.

But the country he tried to sell secrets to was never released. I can't believe it was Brazil.

[NBachers]

7. So THAT'S who it was.

[not fooled]

8. How can you be smart enough to be a naval engineer

yet dumb enough to think that a scheme like this would work?

[Princess Turandot]

9. If I got such a letter, I might've thought it was another iteration of the Nigerian prince bank...

...transfer scheme. (Long before email, they sent out actual letters to potential marks.)

The odd thing is that there seems to be no information as to what their motivation was. They wanted the money, of course, but no one described a situation that would've made them desperate, such as gambling losses financed by loan sharks. The guy was sneaking documents out long before they put up the 'for sale' flag. Was this just a retirement plan for them in lieu of, say, a dull 401-k?

[Blue_Tires]

10. dumb...

[IronLionZion]

11. Thank you Brazil for doing the right thing

these 2 idiots were looking for a payday.