Tom Wales

The Department of Justice announced on Monday, October 11, 2021, that the reward for information to help solve the assassination of Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Wales in 2001 has been increased to $2,523,000. Of that amount, $523,000 has been pledged by the NAFUSA Foundation. The announcement was made Monday morning during a ceremony marking the 20th anniversary of Wales’ murder is his Seattle home. In addition, the Department announced it was returning control of the investigation to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Seattle. Wales was shot while sitting at a computer in the basement of his home.

Monday’s action by the Justice Department followed a meeting last week when all the living former United States Attorneys in the Western District of Washington (Mayor Jenny Durkan, Mike McKay, John McKay, Brian Moran, Jeff Sullivan and Annette Hayes) met with Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco to discuss the need to keep the investigation active and open. The Department responded with an increase of $1M in the reward and a lifting of the recusal of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Western District. Mike McKay is a former president of NAFUSA and for many years served as the president of the NAFUSA Foundation. In that capacity, Mike led the effort to raise $523,000 in pledges and to continue to encourage this long standing effort to bring justice to this terrible crime.