A Navy engineer accused of trying to sell information about nuclear submarines and his wife — both arrested over the weekend on espionage-related charges — worked as school teachers in metro Denver in the mid-2000s.
Jonathan Toebbe taught at Kent Denver, a private college-prep school in Englewood, between 2005 and 2008, and his wife, Diana Toebbe, taught at the school from 2005 to 2012, according to an email from Lisa Mortell, a school spokeswoman.
Jonathan Toebbe’s profile on LinkedIn, a professional networking website, said he taught physics at the school. He earned a master’s degree in nuclear engineering at the Colorado School of Mines, which he attended between 2008 and 2012, according to the college.
Diana Toebbe taught science courses at Kent Denver, Mortell said.
Jonathan Toebbe, 42, is accused of selling restricted data about the design of nuclear-powered submarines to an FBI agent, whom he believed was a representative of a foreign power. Court documents do not identify the nation.
Diana Toebbe, 45, is accused of aiding her husband in the illegal transaction, according to a news release from the U.S. Department of Justice.
Jonathan Toebbe worked as a nuclear engineer at the U.S. Department of the Navy’s Nuclear Propulsion Program. He held an active national security clearance through the U.S. Department of Defense, giving him access to classified information about naval nuclear propulsion and military design elements, the news release said.
He was discharged from active duty in the Navy in September 2017, according to an arrest document filed in U.S. District Court Northern District of West Virginia.
Diana Toebbe taught humanities in the Upper School at the Key School in Annapolis, where she worked for 10 years, the Baltimore Sun reported.
The Toebbes are alleged to have traveled to secret “dead drop” locations in parks and at historical sites, where they left memory cards with classified information about submarine nuclear reactors in exchange for tens of thousands of dollars in payments in cryptocurrencies. Jonathan Toebbe hid the cards in Band-Aid wrappers, peanut butter sandwiches and packs of chewing gum, according to the federal complaint.
The couple was arrested Saturday in West Virginia after authorities alleged they dropped off a memory card at a prearranged site.
On Monday, federal prosecutors filed a memo ahead of a Tuesday court hearing asking that the Toebbes remain in jail on the charges.
In the detention memo, prosecutors checked boxes indicating that they believe the Toebbes represent a risk to flee and to obstruct justice. They also checked boxes showing that the prosecution, under the Atomic Energy Act, involves an “offense for which the maximum sentence is life imprisonment or death.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
