The FBI's Washington office announced it is offering a $200,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of Monica Witt, a former member of the U.S. military and counterintelligence agent.

In February 2019, Witt was indicted by a federal grand jury in the District of Columbia on espionage charges, including transmitting national defense information to the government of Iran.

In a statement on May 14, the FBI said it was still trying to locate Witt, who, according to the indictment, defected to Iran in 2013.

“Monica Witt allegedly betrayed her oath to the Constitution more than a decade ago by defecting to Iran and providing national defense information to the Iranian regime, and likely continues to support its nefarious activities,” stated Daniel Wierzbicki, special agent in charge of the Counterintelligence and Cybersecurity Division of the FBI's Washington Office.

“The FBI has not forgotten and believes that, at this critical moment in Iran's history, there is someone who knows something about his whereabouts,” Wierzbicki added.

Who is Monica Elfriede Witt

There are not many details about his childhood, but the FBI wanted poster indicates that Witt was born on April 8, 1979 in El Paso, Texas.

A CV posted on the employment website Indeed shows that Witt joined the Air Force in December 1997 and was stationed at Offutt Air Base where she worked as an active-duty Persian-Farsi language intelligence specialist.

Subsequently, since November 2003, he served as a special agent in the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (Afosi), at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland.

On its website, Afosi states that its mission is to “identify, exploit and neutralize criminal, terrorist and intelligence threats against the Air Force, the Department of Defense and the United States Government.”

In 2019, a US Air Force spokesperson told the BBC that Witt was discharged in June 2008 with the rank of Technical Sergeant.

He received numerous decorations, including the Air Medal, awarded for “acts of heroism or exceptional merit.”

Witt left the United States Armed Forces in May 2008.

For the next seven months, she worked as a consultant for Booz Allen Hamilton in Maryland, advising on “Iranian issues” and offering “linguistic and cultural expertise.”

From November 2008 to August 2010, he worked as head of the Middle East section at another contracting company, Chenega Federal Systems, in Virginia.

During this period, Witt says he “supervised, controlled and coordinated the execution of highly sensitive counterintelligence operations against foreign intelligence services around the world.”

Subsequently, from December 2010 to May 2011, he worked in Washington with Amideast, a nonprofit organization dedicated to international education, training and development activities in the Middle East.

During his time at the nonprofit, he “submitted applications for 60 Iraqi candidates to the Fulbright program to several American universities,” his resume stated.

The document also said Witt had a bachelor's degree from the University of Maryland, a master's degree from George Washington University and a certification in Persian (Farsi) from the Defense Language Institute.

The George Washington University Journal of International Affairs published two articles by Witt in 2012. In one of them, he criticized the United States for urging Iran's neighboring countries to break relations with Tehran.

According to his resume, he lived and worked in countries such as Iraq, Qatar, Jordan, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Tajikistan and Iran.

“Sharing classified information”

According to the 2019 indictment, Witt traveled to Iran in 2012 to attend a conference that criticized “American moral standards” and promoted anti-American propaganda.

He returned the following year and Iranian officials allegedly provided Witt with “goods and services, including housing and computer equipment,” to facilitate his work for them, according to the indictment.

Authorities allege that he later began working for Tehran by sharing classified information and collecting intelligence on former colleagues in the US intelligence services.

According to the indictment, his military service and employment as a government contractor provided him with access to “secret and top secret” information related to foreign intelligence and counterintelligence, including the real names of undercover agents in the United States intelligence community.

The Justice Department alleged in its indictment that Witt was recruited by Iran and that, after defecting, she allegedly revealed to that country “the existence of a highly classified intelligence collection program and the identity of a U.S. intelligence officer, thereby putting his life at risk,” said then-Deputy Attorney General John Demers.

Prosecutors alleged that from January 2012 to May 2015, in Iran and other countries outside the United States, Witt conspired with Iranians to “provide documents and information related to the national defense of the United States, with the intention and well-founded belief that they would be used to the detriment of the United States and to the benefit of Iran.”

He added that Witt, then 39, also “created information packages for Iran to use” against U.S. government agents and counterintelligence officers.

He was also accused of having conducted research on behalf of the Iranian regime to allow them to attack his former colleagues in the US government.

By allegedly providing information to the Iranian government, Witt “put sensitive and classified U.S. national defense information and programs at risk, the FBI said.

“Witt's defection to Iran has benefited the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which has elements responsible for intelligence gathering, unconventional warfare, and direct support for multiple terrorist organizations that attack American citizens and interests,” the FBI stated in its statement.

The 2019 indictment also charged four Iranians with conspiracy, attempted computer intrusion, and aggravated identity theft, as part of an alleged effort between 2014 and 2015 “to attack, through cyber and other enabled means, at least eight U.S. government agents, all of whom at some point worked or interacted with Monica Witt.”