The FBI added Shahram Poursafi, an alleged member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, to its Most Wanted Terrorists list on Tuesday. He is accused of trying to arrange the killings of two former U.S. government officials.
According to the FBI’s Washington Field Office, Poursafi sought to hire people to carry out the killings between October 2021 and April 2022. Court records describe an alleged plot against former National Security Advisor John Bolton.
Investigators believe the plot was retaliation for the January 2020 killing of Qasem Soleimani, the IRGC commander who led the Qods Force. The unit is one of the IRGC’s five divisions and is responsible for planning and carrying out lethal operations.
Poursafi allegedly acted on behalf of the Qods Force and offered people in the United States $300,000 to kill Bolton.
The FBI also issued wanted notices seeking information about three other alleged officials from the same Qods Force unit: Mohammad Reza Ansari, Abolfazl Alizadeh and Mohammad Hossein Shamoradizadeh.
Ansari is alleged to be a deputy who supported IRGC operations in Syria. He is also accused of planning and attempting to kill two former U.S. officials with Poursafi’s help. Alizadeh and Shamoradizadeh are alleged battalion commanders who took part in lethal plotting operations.
A 2022 Justice Department complaint says Poursafi first approached a U.S. resident he had met online and asked the person to photograph Bolton, claiming the pictures were for a book he was writing.
He later offered another U.S. contact as much as $300,000 to “eliminate” Bolton. Poursafi also mentioned a separate job, for which he said he would pay $1 million.
The scheme ultimately failed because the contact was a confidential source working with the FBI.
Poursafi was charged with using interstate communications or travel to arrange a murder for hire. The Justice Department complaint also accused him of providing resources or assistance for an international murder plot.
Gregory Heeb, a special agent in charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office Counterterrorism Division, 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,” Heeb said.
