Navy Nuke Engineer Turned Spy Tried to Sell Secrets to Brazil

The US naval engineer and his wife who tried to sell US nuclear secrets approached Brazil with the offer, according to a senior Brazilian official and other people briefed on the probe who spoke to the New York Times. Federal prosecutors and other US government officials had kept the nation's identity a closely guarded secret as the case against Jonathan and Diana Toebbe, who both ultimately pleaded guilty last month, progressed. The sources say Jonathan Toebbe approached Brazil in April 2020, offering thousands of pages of classified documents stolen from the US Navy Yard, but Brazilian officials gave the letter to an FBI legal attaché in the country.

From there, the FBI pulled Toebbe in using an undercover agent posing as a Brazilian official who was interested in the information regarding technology behind the nuclear reactors that power the US submarine fleet. Ultimately the Maryland husband and wife were arrested in October. The Times, citing text messages revealed in court, says they believed Russia and China were not morally acceptable as potential buyers, and decided on Brazil because it was eager to get the nuclear sub tech, had the money to pay, and was not hostile toward the US. See more at the Times. (More submarine stories.)