FBI offers $200,000 reward for ex-USAF officer Monica Witt accused of spying for Iran
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has announced a reward of $200,000 for information regarding Monica Witt, a defected U.S. Air Force officer, accused of espionage for the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The special agent and counterintelligence specialist was charged in 2019 with espionage for allegedly leaking the classified U.S. intelligence information to Iran. The bureau said that the female officer has not been found since defecting in 2013.
Special agent in charge of the FBI Washington Field Office’s Counterintelligence and Cyber Division, Daniel Wierzbicki, said, “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.”
He added, “The FBI wants to hear from you so you can help us apprehend Witt and bring her to justice.”
Witt joined the USAF in 1997 and left in 2008; however, she remained a contractor for the Defence Department until 2010.
She travelled to Iran to attend a conference aimed at criticising American moral standards.
The FBI accused her of working with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the elite force formed after the revolution of 1979 to expand the country’s influence worldwide.
In addition to Witt, four Iranians were also charged in the same 2019 indictment for conspiracy and identity theft.
