WASHINGTON — The FBI's Washington Field Office is offering a $200,000 reward for information leading to the capture and prosecution of Monica Elfriede Witt, a former U.S. Air Force counterintelligence specialist charged with revealing classified information to the government of Iran. Witt, 47, was indicted by a federal grand jury in February 2019 on charges of espionage, including transmitting national defense information to Iran, and remains at large.

Witt served in the U.S. Air Force from 1997 to 2008, where she was trained in the Farsi language and deployed overseas on classified counterintelligence missions, including to the Middle East. She later worked as a Defense Department contractor. She was also a special agent with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations. Her work gave her access to classified information, including the identities of undercover U.S. intelligence personnel, according to the FBI.

Witt defected to Iran in 2013. Before defecting, she had attended an anti-American conference in Iran in 2012 and was invited to two all-expense-paid conferences in Iran that the Justice Department says promoted anti-Western propaganda and condemned American moral standards. Before defecting, she had also been warned by the FBI about her activities but told agents she would not provide sensitive information about her work if she returned to Iran. Authorities said she received housing and computer equipment from Iranian officials during her time in Iran.

According to the indictment, Witt placed at risk sensitive and classified U.S. national defense information and programs, intentionally provided information endangering U.S. personnel and their families stationed abroad, and conducted research on behalf of the Iranian regime to allow them to target her former colleagues in the U.S. government. The FBI said her alleged actions benefited Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The 2019 indictment also charged four Iranian nationals with conspiracy and aggravated identity theft for allegedly helping Witt gather information about former U.S. intelligence personnel.

"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 and likely continues to support their nefarious activities," Daniel Wierzbicki, special agent in charge of the FBI Washington Field Office's Counterintelligence and Cyber Division, said in a statement. He added: "The FBI has not forgotten and believes that during this critical moment in Iran's history, there is someone who knows something about her whereabouts."

Anyone with information about Witt's whereabouts is urged to contact the FBI through its tip line or local offices. The U.S. government has accused the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of supporting terrorist organizations and conducting intelligence operations targeting Americans.