'Rewards for justice': US offers $15M for info on Iran's secretive financial networks

US offers up to $15 million for information on IRGC financial mechanisms (Image released by US State Department)

The US department of state has offered a reward of up to $15 million for information that could help disrupt the financial mechanisms of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and its various branches, including the IRGC-Qods Force (IRGC-QF).The Rewards for Justice programme is seeking information on how the IRGC raises, moves and transfers money, including through illicit financial schemes, front companies, financial institutions and other facilitators.The reward offer covers information on IRGC oil-for-money schemes, companies operating internationally on its behalf, entities helping it evade US and international sanctions, and financial institutions or exchange houses facilitating its transactions.The US is also seeking information on how the IRGC transfers funds and materials to groups it supports, as well as its donors, financial facilitators, businesses and investments. The offer includes information on front companies involved in procuring dual-use technology for the IRGC and criminal schemes that financially benefit the organisation.The state department said the IRGC, founded in 1979 following Iran's Islamic Revolution, is part of Iran's military.

It said the IRGC-QF plays a central role in directing Iran's operations outside the country through groups including Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran-backed militia groups in Iraq. These are US government characterisations.The IRGC has been designated by the US as a foreign terrorist organisation since April 2019. The treasury department had previously designated it as a specially designated global terrorist in 2017.The reward comes as the US steps up efforts to target Iran's financial networks. On Thursday, the treasury department's office of foreign assets control sanctioned Iranian digital-asset exchange BitBank, its developer Pishtaz Simorgh Electronic Trade Company and three associates of Iranian financier Babak Zanjani.The treasury department alleged that BitBank had been used to transfer payments to the Iranian regime and said Zanjani had used the platform to facilitate the transfer of hundreds of millions of dollars in Bitcoin to the IRGC.The treasury action was part of what the administration calls Operation Economic Outcast, a campaign aimed at disrupting Iran's revenue sources and sanctions-evasion networks.The Rewards for Justice programme, administered by the state department's bureau of diplomatic security, offers financial rewards for information that can advance US national-security objectives, including disrupting the financial mechanisms of foreign terrorist organisations.