The FBI on Tuesday added a member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to its Most Wanted Terrorists list, accusing him of seeking the murders of two former U.S. government officials.
Shahram Poursafi allegedly recruited people to kill the officials between October 2021 and April 2022, according to the FBI’s Washington Field Office. Court records describe an alleged assassination plot aimed at former National Security Advisor John Bolton.
Investigators believe the plot was retaliation for the January 2020 U.S. strike that killed IRGC commander Qasem Soleimani. Soleimani led the Qods Force, one of the IRGC’s five divisions and the unit responsible for developing and carrying out lethal operations abroad.
Poursafi allegedly acted on behalf of the Qods Force and offered people in the United States $300,000 to carry out the killing.
US OFFERS $20M FOR IRANIAN IN PLOT TARGETING TRUMP’S EX-NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER JOHN BOLTON
Shahram Poursafi (right) allegedly offered $300,000 to have former National Security Advisor John Bolton killed. (Alex Kent/Getty Images/File; FBI)
The FBI also issued wanted posters seeking information about three alleged IRGC officials from the same Qods Force unit: Mohammad Reza Ansari, Abolfazl Alizadeh and Mohammad Hossein Shamoradizadeh.
Ansari is allegedly a deputy who supported IRGC operations in Syria. He is also accused of planning and attempting to assassinate two former U.S. government officials with Poursafi’s assistance.
Alizadeh and Shamoradizadeh are each alleged to have served as battalion commanders involved in lethal plotting operations.
Shahram Poursafi is accused of recruiting people to kill U.S. officials between October 2021 and April 2022. (FBI )
A 2022 Justice Department complaint outlining the charges against Poursafi says he first approached a U.S. resident he had met online and asked that person to photograph Bolton. Poursafi allegedly claimed the pictures were needed for a book he was writing.
He later offered another U.S. contact as much as $300,000 to “eliminate” the former national security advisor. Poursafi allegedly said he had an additional “job” available for $1 million.
According to the FBI, Ansari is a Qods Force deputy who has supported operations in Syria. (FBI)
The alleged plot failed because the contact was a confidential human source working with the FBI, a term commonly used for civilian informants.
Prosecutors charged Poursafi with using interstate communications or travel to arrange a paid assassination. A Justice Department complaint also accused him of providing resources or support for an international murder plot.
The FBI alleges that IRGC battalion commanders Alizadeh and Shamoradizadeh took part in lethal plotting operations. (FBI)
The special agent in charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office said the agency would continue working to disrupt lethal plots and hold IRGC members accountable for threats against people in the United States.
“The FBI will not stand for the IRGC’s brazen attempts to silence, harm or murder activists, dissidents, journalists, public officials or anyone else it deems a threat,” Gregory Heeb of the FBI Washington Field Office’s Counterterrorism Division said.