Navy nuclear engineer from Annapolis in Maryland pleaded guilty to charges of attempting to sell nuclear secrets to a foreign country. He conspired with his wife. Jonathan Toebbe was originally from Martinsburg in West Virginia, he and his wife conspired to share “restricted data,” which violates the Atomic Energy Act.

This does not absolve the wife from the same crime, but it might lessen her sentence based on how much complicit she was in the conspiracy and the act.

Toebbe had agreed to help authorities recover all restricted and sensitive government data, as well as the money given by the FBI to gather evidence in a sting operation.

Bail was denied to both parties as the government deemed that they were flight risks, despite the plea from the wife that she needed to be home with their two school-aged children. It is unclear of their destinies.

Toebbe had worked on nuclear propulsion for submarines within the Navy for almost a decade. Toebbe wished to work in espionage and had been building up information slowly for the past decade. He will be serving at least 17 years in prison.

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