Overview
- The FBI, which announced the reward Thursday, is offering up to $200,000 for tips that lead to the arrest and prosecution of Monica Witt.
- Investigators say Witt, a former Air Force counterintelligence specialist with Farsi training, defected to Iran in 2013 and remains a fugitive.
- A federal grand jury indicted her in February 2019 for conspiring to send national defense secrets to Iran and also charged four Iranian nationals in related hacking and identity-theft offenses.
- The Justice Department alleges she exposed a highly classified intelligence-collection program and a U.S. officer’s identity, and that Iranian officials housed and equipped her to aid their services.
- The bureau says it revived the case in public view during rising Middle East tensions to draw out new leads from people who may know her whereabouts.