The FBI is offering a $200,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of Monica Witt, a former U.S. service member and counterintelligence agent charged with espionage-related offenses for Iran.
The FBI Washington Field Office announced the reward as agents continue their search for Witt, who was indicted by a federal grand jury in the District of Columbia in February 2019.
Witt was charged in the indictment with transmitting national defense information to the government of Iran and other espionage-related offenses, the FBI said.
Witt was an active-duty intelligence specialist in the U.S. Air Force and a special agent with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, the FBI said. She was in the military from 1997 to 2008, then a U.S. government contractor through 2010.
That work provided her access to secret and top secret information concerning foreign intelligence and counterintelligence, including the real identities of undercover U.S. intelligence personnel, the FBI said.
The FBI said Witt defected to Iran in 2013. According to the indictment, she later provided information to the Iranian government, putting sensitive and classified U.S. national defense information and programs at risk.
Witt also allegedly provided information that endangered U.S. personnel and their families stationed abroad. The FBI said she allegedly conducted research for the Iranian government to help target former colleagues in the U.S. government.
“Monica Witt allegedly betrayed her oath to the Constitution more than a decade ago by defecting to Iran and providing the Iranian regime National Defense Information and likely continues to support their nefarious activities,” said Daniel Wierzbicki, special agent in charge of the FBI Washington Field Office’s Counterintelligence and Cyber Division.
The FBI said anyone with information on Witt’s whereabouts may contact the bureau or submit a tip through official FBI channels.
A global media for the latest news, entertainment, music fashion, and more.
