cnn
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Here's a look at the life of Robert Levinson, who disappeared in Iran in 2007.
Birthdate: March 10, 1948
Place of birth: Flushing, New York
Birth name: Robert Alan Levinson
Father: Name not publicly available
Mother: Name not publicly available
Marriage: Christine (Gorman) Levinson
Children: Douglas, Samantha, David, Daniel, Sarah, Stephanie and Susan
Education: City College of New York, B.A., 1970
During his FBI career, Levinson specialized in investigating organized crime in Russia.
His family said Levinson suffered from diabetes and high blood pressure.
1970s – Levinson is hired by the FBI after six years at the Drug Enforcement Administration.
1998 – Levinson retires from the FBI.
1998-2007 – Levinson works as a private investigator.
2006 – Levinson is hired as a contractor by Tim Sampson, head of the Illicit Finance Group within the CIA's Office of Transnational Affairs, to write reports for the agency. The contract is for approximately $85,000. Three CIA employees, including Sampson, subsequently lose their jobs for overstepping their authority as analysts and withholding information about Levinson after he disappeared.
March 8 and 9, 2007 – According to State Department officials, Levinson travels to Kish Island in Iran and checks into a hotel. Levinson is reportedly in the Middle East to investigate cigarette smuggling on behalf of a client. During the visit, he meets with American fugitive Dawud Salahuddin, who is the last person to acknowledge seeing him on March 9.
June 1, 2007 – US President George W. Bush says he is “disturbed” by Iran's refusal to provide information about Levinson. “I call on Iran's leaders to tell us what they know about his whereabouts.”
December 2007 – Levinson's wife, Christine Levinson, meets with government officials in Iran, but learns nothing about her husband's disappearance.
2008 – The CIA pays the Levinson family more than $2 million to avoid a lawsuit, according to the family's attorney, David McGee.
March 3, 2011 – US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says there is growing evidence that Levinson is alive and detained somewhere in Southwest Asia.
December 2011 – The Levinson family releases a “proof of life” video they received in November 2010. In the video, Levinson says: “I have been treated well, but I need the help of the United States government to respond to the requests of the group that It has held me for three and a half years. And please help me get home. Thirty-three years of service to America deserves something. Please help.”
March 6, 2012 – The FBI is offering a $1 million reward for information leading to his safe return.
September 2012 – Christine Levinson attempts to meet with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during the UN General Assembly in New York. He does not meet with her, but tells CNN: “I was told that (Levinson) was in Iran, and of course the question came to mind: What was an American intelligence officer doing in Iran? Are we supposed to find it among 7 billion people spread around the world? What we can do is assist, help and cooperate, what we have been doing and are doing… as a gesture and a humanitarian action.”
January 2013 – The Levinson family releases a series of photographs they received in April 2011. In the photos, a bearded, shackled Levinson, dressed in an orange jumpsuit, holds up signs written in broken English.
September 27, 2013 – US President Barack Obama speaks by phone with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. One of the topics discussed is Levinson.
December 12, 2013 – The Associated Press and The Washington Post report that Levinson was working for the CIA when he disappeared in 2007, possibly investigating corruption among Iranian officials. The AP says it first learned of Levinson's ties to the CIA in 2010, but delayed releasing the information at the government's request. The next day, the New York Times reports that it has known about Levinson's work at the CIA since 2007, but also delayed releasing the information to avoid jeopardizing his safety.
December 13, 2013 – White House spokesman Jay Carney says Levinson “was not a U.S. government employee when he disappeared in Iran.”
December 2013 – Salahuddin, the last person to acknowledge seeing Levinson, tells the Christian Science Monitor that both he and Levinson were detained by Iranian police on March 9, 2007.
January 21st, 2014 – In an interview with CNN, Levinson's family reveals that they knew for some time that he worked for the CIA. They accuse the US government of not doing enough to find Levinson.
March 9, 2015 – FBI increases reward for information on Levinson to $5 million.
February 11, 2016 – Senate passes resolution recognizing Levinson as the longest-held American civilian in U.S. history and urging Iran to “fulfill its promises to help in the Robert Levinson case.”
March 21, 2017 – Levinson's family files a lawsuit against Iran in the US District Court in Washington, DC. The complaint states that the family is filing a lawsuit under the Foreign Sovereign Immunity Act “for injuries suffered by each of them as a result of Iran's unlawful acts of hostage-taking, torture, and other wrongs.”
November 4, 2019 – The State Department's Justice Rewards Program announces a reward of up to $20 million for information leading to Levinson's safe return, in addition to the FBI's previously announced $5 million reward.
March 9, 2020 – On the 13th anniversary of Levinson's abduction, the FBI renews its “repeated calls for Iran to honor its prior commitments to cooperate and share information that could lead to Bob's return.”
March 25, 2020 – Levinson's family announces that they believe he is dead. “We recently received information from US officials that led them and us to conclude that our wonderful husband and father died while in Iranian custody,” they said in a statement.
October 1, 2020 – A US court orders the government of Iran to pay more than $1.4 billion to Levinson's family in compensatory and punitive damages.
December 14, 2020 – Senior US government officials say they have identified and sanctioned two senior Iranian intelligence officials who were involved in the kidnapping and “probable death” of Levinson.
