blockster.com
The US Navy engineer is said to have received a total $100,000 worth of cryptocurrency from the foreign representative.
A criminal complaint filed in the United States District Court for the District of West Virginia, by Justin Van Tromp, a Special Agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), revealed that the defendants, Jonathan Toebbe, with the aid of his spouse Diana Toebbe, sold information about nuclear submarine reactors to a foreign state agent.
The defendants were arrested by the FBI and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS). An excerpt from a press release by the Department of Justice:
"The complaint charges a plot to transmit information relating to the design of our nuclear submarines to a foreign nation. The work of the FBI, Department of Justice prosecutors, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service and the Department of Energy was critical in thwarting the plot charged in the complaint and taking this first step in bringing the perpetrators to justice.”
As part of the court documents, Jonathan Toebbe chose Monero (XMR) as the preferred crypto for the clandestine transaction given the perceived anonymity features of the popular privacy coin. Unlike cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), and Dogecoin (DOGE), privacy coins like Monero reportedly possess transaction obfuscating capabilities.l
“I will tell you the location and how to find the card. I will also give you a Monero address,” Jonathan allegedly said, adding:
“This form of gift protects both of us very well. I am very aware of the risks of blockchain analysis of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies and believe Monero gives both us excellent deniability.”
Indeed, Monero continues to be the subject of intense scrutiny by government agencies, who believe that it is the preferred tool for criminal activities. Back in October 2020 the U.S. Internal Revenue Services (IRS) contracted blockchain forensic firm Chainalysis to develop a transaction tracing tool for Monero.
Chainalysis for its part has previously stated that while cleverly constructed, Monero is not in fact untraceable even though the claim has been disputed by XMR proponents. Monero’s former lead developer Riccardo Spagni was recently arrested by U.S. law enforcement officials on fraud charges but was released back in September.
Crypto critics may point to the story as yet another proof that cryptocurrencies support criminal behavior. Indeed, from ransomware payments, to money laundering, tax evasion and terrorist financing, detractors of virtual currencies point to these activities as justification for their anti-crypto stance.
However, research studies show that criminal activities only account for a minute proportion of crypto commerce with cryptocurrency crime still several orders of magnitude lower than volume of illicit financial transactions carried out via the legacy monetary network.
Isolated incidents like these are often used as justification by policymakers to enact more stringent regulations targeted at the crypto space. In the U.S., lawmakers and administration officials have called for more robust policing of the cryptocurrency industry