The FBI has announced a $200,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of former U.S. military and intelligence official Monica Elfriede Witt, who is accused of spying for Iran.
Witt was indicted in absentia by a federal grand jury in February 2019. Prosecutors allege that she transmitted classified information related to U.S. national defense to Iranian authorities.
The 47-year-old Witt served in the U.S. Air Force from 1997 to 2008 as an intelligence specialist and special agent with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI). During her service, she received Farsi-language training and participated in classified counterintelligence operations abroad, including in the Middle East. After leaving the military, she worked as a Defense Department contractor until 2010. Through her military and contractor roles, she gained access to top-secret information, including intelligence and counterintelligence materials as well as the true identities of undercover members of the U.S. intelligence community.
According to the FBI, Witt defected to Iran in 2013. The Texas native reportedly traveled there after being invited twice to fully funded conferences that the U.S. Justice Department described as events promoting anti-Western propaganda and condemning American moral values. Before those trips, the FBI had warned Witt about her contacts, and she allegedly assured agents that she would not provide Iran with sensitive information about her work if she returned to the country.
Prosecutors say Witt deliberately shared information that endangered American personnel and their families overseas and carried out research on behalf of the Iranian government that helped Tehran identify her former colleagues in the U.S. government. The same 2019 indictment also charged four Iranian nationals with conspiracy and aggravated identity theft. They are accused of assisting Witt in gathering information on her former coworkers inside U.S. government agencies.
The FBI says Witt’s defection benefited the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), including units responsible for intelligence gathering, irregular warfare, and direct support for terrorist organizations targeting U.S. citizens and interests.
“Monica Witt allegedly betrayed her oath to the Constitution more than a decade ago by defecting to Iran and providing the Iranian regime with National Defense Information, and likely continues to support its hostile activities,” said Daniel Wierzbicki of the FBI Washington Field Office’s Counterintelligence and Cyber Division.
He added that the bureau continues to search for Witt and hopes that “during this critical moment in Iran’s history, someone will come forward with information about her whereabouts.”