Twelve Years After Defecting to Iran, the FBI Just Put $200,000 on Monica Witt’s Head.
On or about May 14, 2026, the FBI Washington Field Office announced a $200,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of Monica Elfriede Witt, a former U.S. Air Force counterintelligence officer indicted in 2018 for espionage on behalf of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Witt has been a fugitive in Tehran for twelve years. She is 47 years old. The FBI warned her face-to-face in 2012 that she was a target of Iranian recruitment efforts. Three months later, she defected.
Per the 2019 unsealed indictment: Witt allegedly created “target packages” on her former AFOSI counterintelligence colleagues; four IRGC-affiliated cyber actors used those packages to launch spear-phishing campaigns against the targets’ personal and government computers. The packages allegedly included the code name of a U.S. intelligence Special Access Program (SAP) and the true names of U.S. counterintelligence operatives.
Witt was indicted by a D.C. federal grand jury in 2018; the indictment was unsealed February 13, 2019 alongside indictments of four Iranian co-defendants — Mojtaba Masoumpour, Behzad Mesri, Hossein Parvar, and Mohamad Paryar. All five remain at large in Iran. The May 2026 reward is the FBI admitting, quietly, with $200,000, that conventional law enforcement has run out of options without public help.
- $200,000FBI Washington Field Office reward for information leading to Witt's arrest (announced May 14, 2026)
- 12 yearsSince Witt's August 2013 defection to Iran; she has lived in Tehran ever since
- Feb 13, 2019Date Witt's sealed 2018 indictment was unsealed alongside indictments of 4 IRGC-affiliated co-defendants
- TOP SECRET / SAPClearance Witt held — including access to true names of U.S. Intelligence Community undercover personnel
- Persian FarsiWitt's DLI training (1998-1999), prerequisite for her RC-135 reconnaissance assignment
- 0Of the 5 indicted defendants (Witt + 4 Iranians) currently in U.S. custody
Monica Elfriede Witt — 47. Born 1979. U.S. Air Force enlisted 1997; left active duty 2008; government contractor through 2010. Trained in Persian Farsi at the Defense Language Institute (1998-1999). Served as a Special Agent with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI). Held TOP SECRET clearance with access to Special Access Program (SAP) materials, including true names of IC undercover personnel. Aliases: Fatemah Zahra, Narges Witt. At large; believed resident in Iran.
Iranian co-defendants (all IRGC-affiliated, all at large): Mojtaba Masoumpour, Behzad Mesri, Hossein Parvar, Mohamad Paryar.
SAC Daniel Wierzbicki — Special Agent in Charge, FBI Washington Field Office Counterintelligence and Cyber Division. Delivered the May 2026 reward statement.
FBI Director Kash Patel (R-appointed) — oversees the renewed counterintelligence push.
John C. Demers — then-Assistant Attorney General for National Security at DOJ in 2019; announced the original unsealing.
Jessie K. Liu — then-U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia at time of 2019 unsealing.
Defense counsel: None of record. Witt has never appeared.
Per the 2019 unsealed indictment:
February 2012 — Witt travels to Tehran for the “International Conference on Hollywoodism,” an annual anti-American propaganda event. Allegedly provides her bona fides to IRGC representatives as a credible source of U.S. national defense information.
May 2012 — The FBI warns Witt in person that she is a target of Iranian recruitment efforts. She returns to Iran anyway.
August 2013 — Witt allegedly defects to Iran. Sends an email with her military discharge documents and a religious-conversion narrative to U.S.-born Press TV anchor Marzieh Hashemi, who forwards it to Iranian government officials.
2014-2015 — Witt allegedly creates “target packages” identifying U.S. counterintelligence agents, including former AFOSI colleagues. Four IRGC-affiliated cyber co-defendants use these to send spear-phishing emails and social-media malware to the targets.
Allegedly compromised intelligence: the code name of a Special Access Program (SAP) used by the U.S. intelligence community; true names of U.S. counterintelligence operatives; identities of human intelligence sources; details of ongoing counterintelligence operations against Iran.
Against Witt (Espionage Act, 18 U.S.C. § 794): conspiracy to deliver national defense information to representatives of a foreign government; delivering national defense information to representatives of a foreign government.
Against the four Iranian co-defendants (computer crime + identity theft): conspiracy to commit computer intrusion (18 U.S.C. § 1030); computer intrusion; aggravated identity theft (18 U.S.C. § 1028A).
Note: No material-support-to-FTO count; the IRGC’s FTO designation came in April 2019, two months after Witt’s indictment was unsealed.
Bail / detention: N/A. All five defendants at large in Iran; federal arrest warrants outstanding if any travel from Iran.
The FBI Washington Field Office’s announcement is direct.
“Monica 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.”
SAC Daniel Wierzbicki · FBI Washington Field Office · May 2026
“Should be considered an international flight risk.”
FBI Most Wanted page · primary source · 2026
What is documented:
Allegedly burned a Special Access Program code name and the identities of U.S. counterintelligence officers — losses that, per the 2019 indictment, forced the Intelligence Community to assume sources were compromised and rebuild.
Spear-phishing campaign against her former AFOSI colleagues conducted by the four IRGC-affiliated co-defendants using packages she allegedly assembled — a direct, second-order consequence.
Twelve years of continued residence in Iran, with the U.S. government publicly unable to extract her.
The most-cited modern AFOSI insider-threat case — cited in counterintelligence training and the Naval War College LibGuide.
For context only; not the story:
Ana Montes (DIA, Cuba, arrested 2001) — closest analog: female intelligence professional, ideological recruitment, decades of damage.
Walter Kendall Myers (State Dept., Cuba, arrested 2009) — long-running ideological espionage.
Within AFOSI specifically, the Witt case remains the most-cited modern insider failure, which is why the Bureau is publicly re-litigating it twelve years on.
FBI Washington Field Office Announces $200,000 Reward for Information Leading to Arrest of Former U.S. Counterintelligence Agent Monica Witt — Charged with Espionage for Iran.
A federally indicted former Air Force counterintelligence agent has been living in Tehran for twelve years after the U.S. government warned her, watched her, and lost her. On May 14, 2026, the FBI added $200,000to her head. Four IRGC-affiliated co-defendants remain charged and uncaught. The damage on the record — a burned Special Access Program, identities of U.S. counterintelligence operatives, spear-phishing campaigns against former colleagues — was done by 2015. The reward is what the FBI does when conventional law enforcement is twelve years past out of options.