WASHINGTON — An elderly physicist and his wife who once worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico were arrested Friday on charges of attempting to sell “restricted data” to an undercover FBI agent posing as a top Venezuelan official trying to build an atomic bomb.
Pedro Leonardo Mascheroni, 75, a nationalized U.S. citizen from Argentina, and his 67-year-old wife, Marjorie Roxby Mascheroni, appeared in federal court in Albuquerque on charges of trying “to injure the United States” by passing classified nuclear weapons material in return for millions of dollars.
The couple worked at the laboratory over several decades, Pedro through much of the 1980s and Marjorie from 1981 until earlier this year.
He was a scientist, and her duties included technical writing and editing.
Both had security clearances and access to material concerning the design, manufacture and use of atomic weapons.
Federal law enforcement officials stressed that the government of Venezuela was not involved in any way. Nevertheless, said U.S. Attorney Kenneth J. Gonzales of New Mexico, laboratory employees must safeguard anything they learn there, even after leaving the lab.
In a 22-count grand jury indictment unsealed Friday, the Mascheronis were charged with conspiring to communicate restricted data to a foreign agent. Pedro also was charged with “concealing and retaining U.S. records with the intent to convert them to his own use and gain,” and Marjorie was charged with seven counts of making false statements to investigators. If convicted, each could face life in prison.
The investigation was launched in March 2008 when Pedro Mascheroni began speaking with an undercover FBI agent.
In late 2008, Pedro delivered a disk to a post office box that contained a coded 132-page document containing restricted data regarding nuclear weapons.
