The FBI has offered a $200,000 (£149,000) reward for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of Monica Witt, a former US Air Force counterintelligence specialist now accused of spying for Iran and believed to be living there, the bureau's Washington Field Office confirmed on Thursday 14 May 2026.
According to the bureau, Witt remains at large, is believed to be in Iran and is still being sought in connection with espionage charges first brought in 2019.
According to the FBI's own case summary,Monica Elfriede Wittis not some marginal figure who brushed past classified material by chance. She served on active duty in the US Air Force from 1997 to 2008 as an intelligence specialist, and later worked as a government contractor until 2010, including as a special agent for the Air Force Office of Special Investigations.
That career gave Witt access to secret and top secret information on foreign intelligence and counterintelligence operations. The FBI says the data she handled included the true identities of US intelligence personnel working under cover, arguably one of the most sensitive categories of information in the American system.
#OTDin 2019, Monica Witt, a former U.S. intelligence specialist, was charged with betraying her oath to protect and defend by delivering national defense information to Iran. If you have information about Witt, visithttps://t.co/iL7sD5efWD.#NatSechttps://t.co/Dd9s5QG8b1pic.twitter.com/iZPS7Th5ga
Prosecutors allege that three years after leaving government contracting, in 2013, Witt crossed over entirely. The indictment claims she defected to Iran and began providing information to Iranian officials, 'placing at risk sensitive and classified US national defence information and programmes.'
She is accused of going further than leaking documents, allegedly conducting research for the Iranian state designed to help its security apparatus identify and target her former colleagues and their families overseas.
The FBI notice paints a sparse but pointed portrait. Witt was born on 18 April 1979 in El Paso, Texas. She is described as around 5ft 6in tall and weighing roughly 120lb, with brown hair and brown eyes.
Agents say she speaks Farsi and is 'residing in Iran at this time.'
The most recent FBI posting acknowledges that she may be using aliases, listing 'Fatemah Zahra' and 'Narges Witt' as known alternative names in one release, while another notice says she has no other alias.
Source: International Business Times UK
