{"id":627,"date":"2026-05-15T06:32:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T13:32:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/losangelesmovinginsider.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/15\/fbi-offers-200000-reward-to-catch-ex-air-force-specialist-wanted-on-espionage-charges-in-iran\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T06:32:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T13:32:11","slug":"fbi-offers-200000-reward-to-catch-ex-air-force-specialist-wanted-on-espionage-charges-in-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/losangelesmovinginsider.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/15\/fbi-offers-200000-reward-to-catch-ex-air-force-specialist-wanted-on-espionage-charges-in-iran\/","title":{"rendered":"FBI offers $200,000 reward to catch ex-Air Force specialist wanted on espionage charges in Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"
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WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 The FBI is offering a leading to capture and prosecution of a former U.S. Air Force counterintelligence specialist who defected to Iran in 2013 and was later charged with revealing classified information to the Tehran government.<\/p>\n

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Monica Elfriede Witt, 47,\u00a0was indicted by a federal grand jury\u00a0in February 2019 on charges of espionage, including transmitting national defense information to the government of Iran. She remains at large.<\/p>\n

Witt \u201callegedly 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,\u201d Daniel Wierzbicki, special agent in charge of the FBI Washington Field Office\u2019s Counterintelligence and Cyber Division, said in a news release Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe FBI has not forgotten and believes that during this critical moment in Iran\u2019s history, there is someone who knows something about her whereabouts.\u201d<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t immediately known why the FBI was bringing attention to Witt\u2019s case. The United States and Iran have been at war since Feb. 28.<\/p>\n

Witt served in the Air Force between 1997 and 2008, where she was trained in the Farsi language and was deployed overseas on classified counterintelligence missions, including to the Middle East. She later found work as a Defense Department contractor.<\/p>\n

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The Texas native defected to Iran in 2013 after being invited to two all-expense-paid conferences in the country that the Justice Department says promoted anti-Western propaganda and condemned American moral standards.<\/p>\n

Before that, Witt had been warned by the FBI about her activities, but told agents that she would not provide sensitive information about her work if she returned to Iran, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

According to the indictment, Witt placed at risk \u201csensitive and classified U.S. national defense information and programs,\u201d the news release said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWitt allegedly intentionally provided information endangering U.S personnel and their families stationed abroad. She also allegedly conducted research on behalf of the Iranian regime to allow them to target her former colleagues in the U.S. government,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

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The FBI is offering a $200,000 reward for info leading to the capture of a former US Air Force specialist who defected to Iran in 2013.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":626,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national-news"],"yoast_head":"\nFBI offers $200,000 reward to catch ex-Air Force specialist wanted on espionage charges in Iran - Los Angeles Moving Insider<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/losangelesmovinginsider.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/15\/fbi-offers-200000-reward-to-catch-ex-air-force-specialist-wanted-on-espionage-charges-in-iran\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"FBI offers $200,000 reward to catch ex-Air Force specialist wanted on espionage charges in Iran - 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