The engineer placed a flash drive containing military secrets in a peanut butter sandwich, which included a typed message to the recipient.
In an unusual secret handoff, Jonathan Toebbe allegedly gave the agent, who he thought was a representative of a foreign government, a memory card placed between two slices of bread on a half of a peanut butter sandwich, according to court documents. The memory card reportedly contained design elements and performance characteristics of Virginia-class submarine reactors, according to the Associated Press.
The Justice Department describes those submarines as"cruise missile fast-attack submarines, which incorporate the latest in stealth, intelligence gathering, and weapons systems technology." Authorities say he also provided instructions for how to conduct the furtive relationship, with a letter that said:"I apologize for this poor translation into your language. Please forward this letter to your military intelligence agency. I believe this information will be of great value to your nation. This is not a hoax."
After weeks of back and forth over email, the undercover agent in June sent Toebbe about $10,000 in cryptocurrency, describing it as a sign of good faith and trust, the FBI says. The complaint alleges violations of the Atomic Energy Act, which restricts the disclosure of information related to atomic weapons or nuclear materials.
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