Crime

To Catch A Federal Prosecutor's Killer, DOJ Raises Reward In 20-Year-Old Case

The reward is now $2.5 million.

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Twenty years ago, on October 11, 2001, Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Wales was shot in his Seattle home. The Western District of Washington prosecutor specialized in white-collar criminal investigations. Now, according to reports, the Department of Justice has increased the reward for information in the case.

As reported by the Seattle Times, the FBI has honed in on a theory of the case:

The FBI in recent years concluded that the Wales killing was a revenge hit, carried out on behalf of the commercial airline pilot who was once prosecuted by Wales for fraud. Since then, agents have focused on a “small group” of individuals, most living in Snohomish County, who they believe have knowledge of the killing.

The connection between the pilot and the group had been elusive, but the FBI and federal prosecutors now are looking at the pilot’s suspected connection to the powerful Sinaloa Mexican drug cartel as the common denominator. The cartel has long been active in the illicit drug trade in Western Washington, according to federal prosecutors and the Drug Enforcement Administration.

The pilot, they believe, had been smuggling drugs for the cartel and sought its help in finding someone to kill Wales for him, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case publicly.

If the theory of the case pans out, Wales’s murder would be the first line-of-duty killing of a federal prosecutor in the U.S.

On Monday, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco announced that the Justice Department increased the reward for information leading to the killer to $2 million.

“The Department of Justice will never forget Tom’s contributions to the department and the cause of justice, nor will we forget the tragedy of his death,” Monaco said in a statement. “Although two decades have passed, the Department of Justice remains committed to this investigation. Somebody knows something about this murder, and we want to do everything we can to encourage them to come forward now.”

The National Association of Former U.S. Attorneys contributed an additional $500,000 to the reward, for a total of $2.5 million.

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The FBI is also soliciting tips at (206) 622-0460 or walestips@fbi.gov or 1110 Third Avenue, Seattle, WA, 98101.

Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).

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