Former FBI agent Robert Levinson’s disappearance still unsolved as bureau presses for new tips
Nearly two decades after former FBI agent Robert Levinson disappeared in Iran, the FBI is renewing its appeal for information as colleagues and family members continue pushing for answers about one of the longest-running hostage cases involving an American.
FBI Director Kash Patel last week marked the anniversary of Levinson’s disappearance while recognizing Hostage and Wrongful Detainees Day, saying the bureau remains committed to finding out what happened to him.
“Even almost 20 years later, Bob is on our minds as much as ever before,” Patel said in a statement posted on social media. The FBI continues to offer up to $5 million for information leading to Levinson’s recovery, location or return, in addition to a State Department reward.
Levinson, a former FBI agent and Drug Enforcement Administration investigator, disappeared on March 9, 2007, while visiting Iran’s Kish Island in the Persian Gulf. Levinson was the longest-held hostage in U.S. history, and his family had fought for over a decade for his safe return, blaming the Iranian regime for his capture and imprisonment.
ROBERT LEVINSON, RETIRED FBI AGENT, PRESUMED DEAD IN IRANIAN CUSTODY OVER A DECADE AFTER DISAPPEARANCE
In 2020, U.S. officials said they believed Levinson likely died in Iranian custody, though his remains have never been recovered.
For former FBI Assistant Director Chris Swecker, who worked alongside Levinson years earlier, the case remains personal.
“I met Bobby Levinson when I was transferred to Miami in 1987,” Swecker told Fox News Digital. “He was kind of the iconic agent on the squad because he was prolific in developing cooperating cartel members and informants.”
Swecker said Levinson had built a reputation within the bureau for his ability to cultivate sources inside criminal organizations.
“He was a craftsman, a journeyman-level agent who knew what he was doing and was good at what he was doing,” Swecker said.
Levinson worked for the DEA before joining the FBI. Colleagues remembered him as a seasoned field investigator who preferred working cases rather than moving into management roles.
Swecker described the 6-foot-3 agent as both serious about his work and deeply devoted to his family.
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Levinson was 58 when he traveled to Kish Island, Iran, in 2007 working as a private investigator. He reportedly was taking part in an unauthorized CIA mission.
Upon his arrival, Levinson was said to have met with an American fugitive – Dawud Salahuddin – targeted by the CIA for recruitment, a source close to the Levinson case told Fox News in 2016.
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Salahuddin was wanted by the CIA for allegedly murdering an Iranian diplomat in Maryland in 1980, and Levinson hoped the mission to deliver him to the agency would secure him full-time employment with the CIA, the source told Fox News at the time.
Shortly afterward, Levinson disappeared, but Iran repeatedly denied capturing him or knowing of his whereabouts.
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“I eventually read that he had been hired on contract with the agency,” he said. “Just such a risk to go to the island of Kish with his background.”
GOT A TIP?
Iran has long denied responsibility for Levinson’s disappearance, though U.S. officials say evidence shows Iranian authorities detained him.
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The U.S. Treasury Department in 2020 sanctioned two Iranian intelligence officials accused of involvement in Levinson’s disappearance and cover-up.
Trump gives Iran 48-hour ultimatum to reopen Strait of Hormuz or face strikes on power plants
President Donald Trump issued a 48-hour ultimatum to Iran on Saturday, warning the U.S. would strike its power plants if the Strait of Hormuz is not reopened.
“If Iran doesn’t FULLY OPEN, WITHOUT THREAT, the Strait of Hormuz, within 48 HOURS from this exact point in time, the United States of America will hit and obliterate their various POWER PLANTS, STARTING WITH THE BIGGEST ONE FIRST!” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
The president’s threat represents a notable escalation in rhetoric as tensions surge over the strategically vital waterway.
Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a global choke point for oil and gas transport that supplies roughly one-fifth of the world’s crude oil, has been largely limited since early March, shortly after the war with Iran began.
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Trump’s post comes after he told reporters Friday that reopening the strait was a “simple military maneuver.”
“It’s relatively safe, but you need a lot of help in the sense of you need ships, you need volume,” he said.
The president added that NATO hasn’t had the “courage” to assist the U.S. with reopening the waterway.
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“NATO could help us, but they so far haven’t had the courage to do so, and others could help us,” Trump said. “But, you know, we don’t use it. You know, at a certain point, it’ll reopen itself.”
Earlier Friday, Trump ripped NATO on Truth Social as “cowards,” saying they “complain about the high oil prices they are forced to pay, but don’t want to help open the Strait of Hormuz.”
A growing group of countries has signed onto a joint statement signaling their “readiness to contribute to appropriate efforts to ensure safe passage” through the strait.
The joint statement said, “We express our readiness to contribute to appropriate efforts to ensure safe passage through the Strait,” and, “We welcome the commitment of nations who are engaging in preparatory planning.”
The statement was attributed to leaders from more than 20 countries, including the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Canada and the United Arab Emirates.
“We condemn in the strongest terms recent attacks by Iran on unarmed commercial vessels in the Gulf, attacks on civilian infrastructure including oil and gas installations, and the de facto closure of the Strait of Hormuz by Iranian forces,” the statement reads.
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“We express our deep concern about the escalating conflict. We call on Iran to cease immediately its threats, laying of mines, drone and missile attacks and other attempts to block the Strait to commercial shipping, and to comply with UN Security Council Resolution 2817,” the statement continued.
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Earlier this week, U.S. forces struck Iran’s anti-ship missile sites near the Strait of Hormuz with 5,000-pound bunker-buster bombs, according to U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM).
Iranian man, Romanian woman charged after allegedly trying to enter UK nuclear missile base, officials say
An Iranian man and a Romanian woman have been charged after allegedly unsuccessfully attempting to enter a nuclear missile base in Scotland this week, Police Scotland announced Saturday.
The agency said around 5 p.m. Thursday, “we were made aware of two people attempting to enter HM Naval Base Clyde.”
“A 34-year-old Iranian man and a 31-year-old Romanian woman have been arrested and charged in connection with the incident. They are due to appear at Dumbarton Sheriff Court on Monday, March 23,” Police Scotland said. “Enquiries are ongoing.”
Fox News Digital has reached out to Police Scotland for further comment.
IRANIAN MAN, SECOND PERSON ARRESTED AFTER ALLEGEDLY TRYING TO ENTER UK NUCLEAR MISSILE BASE
Citing the Times, the Telegraph newspaper reported that the suspects were turned away from the base because they lacked the correct passes and were later arrested nearby for allegedly “acting suspiciously in the vicinity.”
HM Naval Base Clyde, commonly known as Faslane, is considered the primary base for the United Kingdom’s missile fleet.
The Royal Navy says the base is home “to the core of the Submarine Service, including the nation’s nuclear deterrent, and the new generation of hunter-killer submarines.”
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The U.K. Parliament says the Royal Navy operates a fleet of nine submarines, and the entire fleet is based at HM Naval Base Clyde.
“Five of those are conventionally-armed nuclear-powered attack submarines of the Astute class. A further four are ballistic missiles submarines (SSBN) of the Vanguard class that comprise the UK’s submarine-based nuclear deterrent,” it added.
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“Police Scotland have arrested two people who unsuccessfully attempted to enter HM Naval Base Clyde on Thursday 19 March,” a Royal Navy spokesperson said in a statement to Fox News Digital Friday.
“As the matter is subject to an ongoing investigation, we will not comment further.”
Iranian student warns ‘barbaric’ regime is taking nation ‘hostage,’ executing civilians to end unrest
Iran has increased executions and arrests across the country as the United States continues strikes in the Middle East. Mooné Rahimi, a student and activist previously arrested by the morality police, said the regime is using fear tactics to hold the nation “hostage.”
Rahimi said on “Fox & Friends Weekend” that Iranian civilians view the ongoing war as a desperate “rescue mission” from a regime that uses arrests and executions to maintain its grip on power.
“This situation that is happening in Iran, they call it [a] rescue mission, especially the people inside Iran,” said Rahimi, who left Iran several years ago and is now studying in the United States.
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“This barbaric, brutal regime treats women in a very intense way. If there is a protester, a woman protester, in the street of Iran, they’re going to arrest them, and they’re going to put them in a jail and, at the end, they’re going to hang them as they’re doing it like those executions that are happening,” she added.
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This week, 19-year-old champion wrestler Saleh Mohammadi and at least two other men were hanged in Iran, sparking fears that a larger wave of killings could be coming. The three were arrested during January’s protests and sentenced after authorities said they killed two officers during demonstrations.
Amnesty International said the convictions were unfairly rendered and that confessions were extracted using torture techniques, according to The Associated Press. Rahimi said she believes there have likely already been more executions and that the regime is using them to “spread fear” to stop protests.
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She added that Iranians, both inside the country and outside, have been trying to warn the world that the regime is holding the nation “hostage” through brutality. Rahimi was arrested several times by the morality police before she decided to leave.
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“They actually don’t care how much you cover yourself, if you just have your bangs, a little bit of your hair out of your hijab, they’re [going to] arrest you,” she said.
Her account comes as the U.S. and Israel continue to pressure Iran with Operation Epic Fury after the Feb. 28 strikes that resulted in the death of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Three additional warships and roughly 2,500 Marines are being deployed by the U.S. to the Middle East.
Families of Iran’s elite live lavishly abroad while ordinary citizens suffer at home
For decades, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and ruling clerical elite have relied on a system critics say is as strategic as it is cynical: Denounce the West in public, while quietly securing a future there for their own families.
“The Islamic regime in Iran is corrupt to its core,” Kasra Aarabi, director of IRGC research at United Against Nuclear Iran, told Fox News Digital. “While regime clerics and IRGC commanders violently Islamize Iranian society and export anti-Americanism globally, their sons and daughters live lavish lifestyles on blood money in Western capitals.”
Iranian journalist Banafsheh Zand still remembers the girl from her school, the kind of memory that only becomes meaningful years later, when a familiar face reappears in a completely different context.
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They sat together in classrooms at Tehran’s elite Iranzamin School, an institution designed for the children of diplomats and Iran’s upper class, where students spoke multiple languages and moved easily between cultures. The girl was quiet and studious, already shaped in part by years spent in the United States, where she had lived as a child and picked up fluent English that would later define her public role.
Years later, Zand would see her again, not across a desk or in a school hallway but on television screens around the world. Her former classmate had become the voice of the 1979 U.S. embassy hostage crisis.
The girl was Masoumeh Ebtekar, the English-speaking spokesperson for the extremists who held 52 Americans hostages for 444 days, and who would go on to defend the takeover of the U.S. embassy and later describe it as “the best move” for the revolution.
And yet, decades later, the story did not end in Tehran. It continued, quietly and almost predictably, in California.
A life far from the revolution
Ebtekar son, Eissa Hashemi, was living in the United States, pursuing graduate studies and eventually building a career in academia in Los Angeles, Zand exposed on her substack “Iran So Far Away” — a trajectory that stands in stark contrast to the ideology his mother helped articulate to the world.
For Zand, this is not an anecdote or an isolated irony but a window into how the system itself functions.
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“They take the money from corruption inside the country and use it to live a better life elsewhere,” she said. “It’s not a few cases. It’s how they operate.”
What Zand is describing is widely referred to inside Iran as the “aghazadeh” phenomenon, a term used for the children of the Iranian regime’s elite who live lives of privilege abroad while their families enforce ideological restrictions at home, and who have come to symbolize for many Iranians the gap between the regime’s rhetoric and its reality.
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A three-tier network inside the West
Exiled Iranian journalist Mehdi Ghadimi, now based in Canada, argues that this phenomenon is structured.
“When we talk about the presence of agents of the Islamic Republic, especially the IRGC, here in Canada, we should understand this is not random,” Ghadimi told Fox News Digital. “It operates in layers.”
The system functions as a three-tiered structure that allows regime-linked individuals to embed themselves across Western societies, according to Ghadimi, beginning with those who arrive as students and academics, often presenting themselves as ordinary immigrants while maintaining ties to the regime or its security apparatus.
“They come as students or professors,” he said, “but many have prior connections to the IRGC, and part of their role is to normalize the Islamic Republic in universities and gather information on activists.”
That category includes individuals identified in recent reporting across U.S. campuses, such as Leila Khatami, daughter of former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami at Union College in New York, Zeinab Hajjarian, the daughter of Saeed Hajjarian, a founder of Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence, at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, according to a March 18 New York Post report.
The second layer, Ghadimi explained, is financial, consisting of former insiders and trusted affiliates who enter Western countries as investors or business figures, often carrying significant capital that raises questions about its origin.
“In Iran, a monthly salary might be $100 or $200, while an apartment costs $100,000,” he said. “So when someone arrives with millions, they are not an ordinary individual.”
These individuals, he said, often serve as conduits for moving money out of Iran, operating under the cover of private enterprise while maintaining ties to the system that enabled their wealth. “They change their professional status and enter as private-sector investors,” he said. “But they are trusted by the system.”
The third layer involves individuals who receive explicit approval from the regime to move large sums abroad, a process that, according to Ghadimi, requires a “green light” from the security apparatus and often comes with expectations in return. “In order to move that level of money, you need permission,” he said, “and in return, they help finance networks connected to the regime.”
One of the most prominent examples is Mahmoud Reza Khavari, the former chairman of Bank Melli Iran, who fled the country in 2011 after the bank was implicated in a roughly $2.6 billion embezzlement scandal, one of the largest corruption cases in Iran’s history.
Khavari later settled in Canada, where public reporting shows that he and his family acquired millions of dollars in real estate, including properties in Toronto, where he remains more than a decade later.
For Zand, the pattern is unmistakable. “It’s a mafia structure,” she said.
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A global footprint: from Atlanta to London
As previously reported by Fox News Digital, Fatemeh Ardeshir-Larijani, the daughter of senior Iranian political figure Ali Larijani and a conservative force within Iran’s theocracy, who was killed in an Israeli strike this week, held a position at Emory University’s Winship Cancer Institute in Atlanta before leaving earlier this year following public pressure.
At the same time, a February 2026 report by The Guardian highlighted how relatives of Iranian elites have built lives not only in the United States but also in Britain and Canada, including members of the Larijani family and relatives of other senior officials, even as the regime continues to position itself in opposition to the West.
Thousands of relatives of Iranian officials were believed to be living across Western countries, IranWire reported in 2022, though precise figures remain difficult to verify independently, underscoring both the scale of the phenomenon and the opacity of the system behind it.
“The problem is even more visible in Europe,” Aarabi said, “Governments, not least the U.K., have turned a blind eye.”
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Power, assets and the next generation
Mojtaba Khamenei, who is slated as the country’s new supreme leader, has been linked to a network of overseas assets, including high-value real estate in Europe.
A March 2026 investigation by The Times of London, identified two luxury apartments in London’s Kensington neighborhood, acquired in 2014 and 2016 through intermediaries, that sit directly adjacent to the Israeli Embassy compound.
The findings are part of a broader probe into Khamenei’s alleged overseas holdings, with a Bloomberg investigation estimating a portfolio spanning multiple countries and totaling roughly $138 million in assets across Europe and the Gulf, pending verification of full ownership structures.
“He has been operating behind the scenes, managing a large part of the Revolutionary Guard’s security and economic cartel,” Ghadimi said. “His hands are deeply stained with corruption and crimes, and the same Revolutionary Guard is now the main force backing his rise.”
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A system Iranians themselves cannot escape
Inside Iran, the contrast with everyday life is stark. Women are arrested for violating dress codes, protesters are jailed, and economic hardship has deepened across much of the population. Outside Iran, the children of the elite live differently.
“They’re telling people how to live, what to wear, what to believe,” Zand said. “But their own families don’t live like that.”
For her, the issue is not only hypocrisy, but strategy. “It’s also about influence,” she said. “They integrate into societies, they build networks, they learn how the West works.”
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Aarabi believes Western governments have failed to respond accordingly. “The Islamic regime’s oligarchs should be treated no differently from Putin’s oligarchs,” he said. “The West should identify, sanction and deport these individuals.”
Iran funding emerges as key test for Johnson’s razor-thin House majority
The Trump administration’s anticipated multibillion-dollar funding request to bolster its Iran campaign could face resistance from GOP fiscal hawks.
Though congressional Republicans have been broadly supportive of the Trump administration’s conflict in Iran, some conservatives are drawing a red line that an emergency cash infusion, known as a supplemental, cannot increase budget deficits. Multiple House Freedom Caucus members, for example, told Fox News Digital that such a funding bill would have to be made up for by cutting spending elsewhere.
“I think the big thing there is going to be making sure that there’s a pay-for,” Rep. Eli Crane, R-Ariz., told Fox News Digital.
“I’d like to see how this is paid for,” Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., said, adding he’d like to see Iran ultimately cover the costs.
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Neither the president nor Department of War Secretary Pete Hegseth has attempted to dispute reports Thursday that the administration is considering an infusion of roughly $200 billion to help finance the Iran campaign and restore depleted munitions. However, no formal request has been sent to congressional leaders yet.
“Our national debt just surpassed $39 trillion. A potential supplemental for Operation Epic Fury — or any supplemental funding for that matter — must be offset,” Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., told Fox News Digital when asked about the prospective $200 billion request.
Clyde said he supported the mission but that any resources Congress signs off on must be done “in a fiscally responsible manner.”
Another House conservative granted anonymity to speak freely about the Freedom Caucus’s thinking told Fox News Digital fiscal hawks were likely to be “skeptical” about the price tag.
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“America isn’t signing up for a $200 billion war. The White House needs to give details of a plan regarding boots on the ground and how much is for replenishing our own arsenal and how it’s being paid for,” that lawmaker said.
With Democrats’ expected opposition to an Iran supplemental, some Republicans believe putting defense spending in a second “big, beautiful bill” via the budget reconciliation process could be the path of least resistance for the GOP.
Top congressional Democrats were sharply critical of a massive supplemental Thursday, a position that could harden if the conflict drags on.
“They are certainly not going to spend an additional dime on the military, on security, on any of the things that we care about,” Rep. August Pfluger, R-Texas, told Fox News Digital in an interview last week, referring to Democrats.
“This conflict right now and the future of our country and our Western values have to be secured by additional defense spending, which can only happen in a reconciliation bill.”
Pfluger did not comment specifically on the prospective $200 billion request when asked on Friday, but he reaffirmed his support for another reconciliation bill. He also pointed out that reconciliation means that the new spending would be mostly or fully paid for.
“Iran is the largest state sponsor of terrorism in the world, and I strongly support the administration’s efforts to ensure the United States and our allies cannot be threatened,” he said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
“The pathway for additional military funding could be through a second reconciliation bill with commonsense offsets that ensure the president’s request is fully paid for. Our warfighters will not be left waiting while the left plays politics with national security.”
The budget reconciliation process allows the majority party to steer around the Senate’s 60-vote requirement and pass legislation via a simple majority. Republicans used the legislative maneuver to advance Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act through Congress in the first half of 2025.
Budget reconciliation would also allow Republicans to identify offsets to a substantial increase in defense spending. However, intraparty divisions are likely to emerge over spending cuts.
There is also skepticism among some Republicans that the Pentagon needs a massive infusion of money.
The “big, beautiful bill” gave $150 billion to the Pentagon. The president has also requested a $1.5 trillion defense budget for the upcoming fiscal year, more than a 50% increase from current levels.
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Rep. Keith Self, R-Texas, told Fox News Digital he would like to see the specifics of the supplemental request before committing to supporting one.
“The DOD hasn’t passed an audit for a while,” Self said. “I would like for them to scrub things before they start asking for more money after the $150 billion and before the appropriations get passed.”
And some Republicans are doubtful that the House GOP’s razor-thin majority will be able to pass any reconciliation bill at all, particularly in an election year.
“We’ll see,” Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., who’s already signaled skepticism over the prospect of a second reconciliation bill, told Fox News Digital when asked specifically about military funding in such a vehicle.
And Rep. Greg Murphy, R-N.C., told Fox News Digital of a second reconciliation bill, “I don’t know how well the prospects are because there’s some people saying that we aren’t going to do it, and given our small majority, it’s going to be challenging.”