Man wants $25M reward for Osama bin Laden info

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., Nov. 1 (UPI) -- A Michigan man says he pointed the FBI toward Osama bin Laden's compound in Pakistan and wants a $25 million reward offered by the federal government.

Tom Lee, 63, of Grand Rapids alleges in 2003, he told the FBI bin Laden's compound was in Abbottabad, Pakistan, WBBM-AM, Chicago, reported Friday.

Now he has hired lawyers to help him collect the reward the federal government offered before bin Laden was killed in a raid at the compound in 2011.

"I told them where the worst terrorist of the century was. What's that worth?" Lee asked. "I ask for whatever's reasonable."

Lee said he knew where bin Laden was because he was well acquainted with a Pakistani intelligence agent who escorted bin Laden to Abbottabad. One day, the agent called Lee and asked him if he wanted to know where bin Laden was living.

"So I said sure," Lee said.

Lee said he then passed that information along to the U.S. government.

Lee "has a long history of working with U.S. government investigators, and providing high-quality information about international criminals," attorney Michael Kanovitz wrote in a letter to FBI Director James Comey.

However, the federal government has said no one will get the reward money because the raid was the result of electronic intelligence.