FBI offers US$200,000 for information on former air force intelligence specialist charged with spying for Iran

Monica Witt and the FBI seal are seen in this composite image (FBI via CNN Newsource, AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

The FBI is offering US$200,000 for information that could lead to the arrest of a former U.S. air force intelligence specialist who was charged in 2019 with spying for Iran.

In an announcement Thursday, the FBI said it is still trying to locate Monica Witt, who it believes defected to Iran in 2013. The agency said it believes she “likely continues to support (Iran’s) nefarious activities.”

“The FBI has not forgotten and believes that during this critical moment in Iran’s history, there is someone who knows something about her whereabouts,” Daniel Wierzbicki, special agent in charge of the FBI Washington Field Office’s Counterintelligence and Cyber Division, said a statement, likely referring to America’s ongoing tensions with Iran.

“The FBI wants to hear from you so you can help us apprehend Witt and bring her to justice,” it said.

Witt was a former counterintelligence officer for the Air Force Office of Special Investigations. From 2003 and 2008, Witt’s work involved counterintelligence assignments that took her to the Middle East.

In 2019, then-Assistant Attorney General John Demers alleged that Witt was targeted and recruited by Iran, and after she defected, she allegedly revealed to Iran the existence of a “highly classified intelligence collection program” and the identity of a U.S. intelligence officer, “thereby risking the life of this individual.”

Prosecutors alleged in the indictment that from around January 2012 to around May 2015, in Iran and elsewhere outside the U.S., Witt conspired with Iranians to provide “documents and information relating to the national defence of the United States, with the intent and reason to believe that the same would be used to the injury of the United States and to the advantage of Iran.”

After her defection, Iranian government officials provided Witt with “goods and services, including housing and computer equipment,” to facilitate her work for them, according to the indictment. It’s unclear whether she has a lawyer in the U.S. to represent her.

The indictment also charged four Iranians with conspiracy, attempts to commit computer intrusion and aggravated identity theft.