Fugitive Alert: Farhad Monem

PORTLAND, Ore. - He is accused of taking more than $1 million in bribes while working for Oregon's corrections system, but he managed to escape before the feds had a chance to charge him.

Farhad 'Fred' Monem was the Food Services Manager for the Department of Corrections and according to an FBI investigation, he was allegedly taking illegal kickbacks from food vendors to grant them contracts.

Monem faces charges of bribery, tax evasion and conspiracy to take bribes and the agency.  Federal prosecutors were negotiating a plea deal with him before he escaped three weeks ago and now the FBI is concerned he has fled the country.

"As of right now, it's a fugitive investigation," said Joe Boyer, the Portland FBI's Supervisory Special Agent on white collar crime. 

"Technically when he left, he was not under any charges and had he been charged and then left, he would have faced an additional charge of failure to appear," Boyer added.

Boyer said even if Monem had been charged, a judge would have likely released him pending trial. He also said it would not be realistic in a case like this for the FBI to watch him around the clock.

Originally from Iran, the FBI required Monem to surrender his passport, but for now, you do not need one to cross the border into Canada and Monem has a brother who lives there.

Monem's flight took him to Buffalo, New York - which is less than two hours away from Toronto.

If Monem tried to get back to Iran, it would take a fake passport, and if he made it there, it would pose a challenge to the FBI.

"One of our concerns is that he has relatives in Iran and of course, we don't have an extradition treaty with Iran, but we're doing everything we can to try to locate him," said Boyer.

The FBI hopes anyone with information about Fred Monem's whereabouts, or people he may be contacting for help, will contact them immediately.

Monem's wife was arrested recently in Salem and charged with conspiracy to take bribes, but she has been released.