Couple Accused Of Selling US Nuclear Secrets For $5 Million Appears In Court
NDTV
Jonathan Toebbe was a former officer in the navy with expertise in nuclear propulsion of submarines while his wife Diane was a teacher at a well-regarded private school.
A US nuclear engineer and his wife appeared in court Tuesday days after their arrest for trying to sell submarine secrets for $5 million, as speculation persisted on which country was the targeted buyer.
Jonathan Toebbe and his wife Diana Toebbe appeared separately in federal court in West Virginia dressed in orange prison garb. A judge ordered them to be assigned public defenders, indicating they did not have enough money to hire their own.
Both are charged with conspiracy to hand over highly classified technology on the navy's most advanced nuclear-powered, cruise missile-launching submarines to an unnamed foreign power.
A criminal complaint unveiled Sunday does not say which country they sought to sell the information to but suggests that it could be a US ally, disclosing that the country informed the US Federal Bureau of Investigation of the Toebbes' overture last December.