The FBI is offering a $200,000 reward for information leading to the capture of Monica Elfriede Witt, a former U.S. Air Force counterintelligence specialist who defected to Iran more than a decade ago and was later indicted on espionage charges, the bureau announced Wednesday.
Witt, 47, remains at large and is accused of revealing classified national defense information to the Iranian government and conducting research to help Tehran target her former U.S. colleagues. The announcement arrives during the active U.S.–Iran war, which began Feb. 28, though the FBI did not disclose a specific reason for renewing attention on the case.
“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 in a statement. Wierzbicki said 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.”
A federal grand jury in Washington indicted Witt in February 2019 on charges including espionage and transmitting national defense information. She has evaded capture since the indictment was unsealed.
Witt, a Texas native, served in the Air Force from 1997 to 2008, receiving training in the Farsi language and deploying on classified counterintelligence missions, including to the Middle East. She later worked as a Defense Department contractor.
Her defection occurred in 2013 after she was invited to two all-expense-paid conferences in Iran that the Justice Department described as promoting anti-Western propaganda and condemning American moral standards. Before traveling, Witt was warned by the FBI about her activities; she told agents she would not provide sensitive information if she returned to Iran, according to prosecutors.
According to the indictment, Witt placed at risk “sensitive and classified U.S. national defense information and programs.” The Justice Department said she “allegedly intentionally provided information endangering U.S. personnel and their families stationed abroad.”
Prosecutors further allege that Witt “conducted research on behalf of the Iranian regime to allow them to target her former colleagues in the U.S. government.”
The FBI did not explain why the reward was publicized now. The United States and Iran have been at war since late February, a conflict that has brought increased scrutiny to counterintelligence threats and potential vulnerabilities involving individuals with knowledge of U.S. defense operations.