Suburban Spies Are Us: Part 2

The unbelievable true story of a suburban Maryland couple who tried to sell U.S. nuclear military secrets to Brazil and failed miserably.

Photo by David Sinclair on Unsplash.

If only Jonathan Toebbe had obeyed his instincts, he and his wife Diana might have gotten away with the whole thing.

They might have abandoned their carefully devised plan to sell U.S. nuclear submarine secrets to a foreign nation and remained free to try again. But the plan was just too perfect- he being a nuclear engineer for the US Navy with Top Secret Security Clearance via the US Department of Defense and access to highly confidential materials through the US Department of Energy, she being an unemployed teacher with “no loyalty to abstractions”.

They just couldn’t walk away.

The instant their “contact” inside a Brazilian intelligence agency- in reality the FBI impersonating one, the Brazilian government having sensibly turned the anonymous offer to sell top-secret U.S. military secrets over to their American counterparts long since- asked for an in-person exchange of data for cryptocurrency, the couple should have known better.

“I am concerned that using a dead drop location your friend prepared makes me very vulnerable,” Mr. Toebbe complained in one email exchange, according to documents revealed this week in court. “For now, I must consider the possibility that you are not the person I hope you are.”

“We understand your concern and appreciate the thoughtful plan…as a sign of good faith and trust we wish to pay you the equivalent of 10,000 USD immediately on Monero to the address you provided,” wrote the FBI, code name BOB, a few days later on April 1, 2021.

“Drop locations are safest and allow us to make exchanges without coming in contact and of course leave no electronic footprint…” BOB/FBI continued blithely. Toebbe, code name ALICE, had admitted to being an amateur in an earlier communication and FBI/BOB didn’t hesitate to press their advantage.

“Your proposed method of of memory card with encryption/passphrase is acceptable. For the small sample we requested you will receive another 20,000 USD,” FBI agents answered. “Once you confirm Monero address we will activate payment. Our next step will be information on the drop location we have selected…