Former schoolteacher Diana Toebbe pleaded guilty on Friday to helping her military husband sell government secrets to a foreign nation.
NBC News reported that Toebbe, 46, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to communicate restricted data related to nuclear designs under a plea deal that will allow her to spend 36 months in prison at most.
Her husband, Jonathan Toebbe, 43, pleaded guilty on Monday to conspiracy to communicate restricted data.
In court filings, prosecutors said that the scheme began in April 2020 when Jonathan Toebbe, who worked on the Navy's nuclear propulsion program, mailed a package of restricted information to representatives of a foreign power, offering to reveal many more secrets for up to $5 million in cryptocurrency.
The FBI contacted him after the U.S. government learned about the offer, and pretended to be representatives of the country where he sent the package, NBC reported. The country was not named in court filings.
Toebbe initially wanted to deal only by email, prosecutors said, but later agreed to store the data on SD cards, which he would leave at designated locations.
He dropped off data four times, hiding the information storage cards in a variety of ways, including in half a peanut butter sandwich and a chewing gum package.
Court documents said the cards included designs for the Navy's Virginia-class submarines, nuclear-powered fast-attack vessels incorporating stealth technology that are able to fire cruise missiles.
Diana Toebbe was accused of being the lookout while he made the drops.
A federal judge will determine the length of her prison sentence after a presentence investigation and hearing, according to NBC.
Both were arrested in October and remain jailed in West Virginia.
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