FBI Adds IRGC Member Charged in Bolton Murder-for-Hire Case to Most Wanted Terrorists List

Since the Justice Department charged Shahram Poursafi in August 2022, the Iranian has remained out of reach of U.S. authorities. On Tuesday, Nov. 10, the FBI's Washington Field Office added him to its Most Wanted Terrorists list and released seeking-information posters for three alleged associates.

The FBI says Poursafi, who also goes by Mehdi Rezayi, is a member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. According to the bureau, he solicited the murder of two former U.S. government officials between October 2021 and April 2022, likely in retaliation for the January 2020 death of Qods Force commander Qasem Soleimani.

Court documents name former National Security Advisor John Bolton as one of the targets.

What the 2022 complaint alleges

The Justice Department complaint says Poursafi first asked a U.S. resident he had met online to photograph Bolton. His cover story was that the pictures were for a book he was writing.

He then allegedly offered another U.S. contact up to $300,000 to "eliminate" Bolton, and said he had a second "job" that would pay $1 million. Iran International reports that prosecutors placed the intended killing in Washington or Maryland.

The plot went nowhere. The contact was a confidential human source working for the FBI.

Poursafi was charged with using interstate commerce facilities in the commission of a murder-for-hire, and with providing and attempting to provide material support to a transnational murder plot. Those are charges, not convictions. He has not been arrested.

The State Department's Rewards for Justice program is offering up to $20 million for information leading to his arrest or conviction. Its listing says he used encrypted messaging apps to arrange the killing from Iran.

The three posters

The FBI says Poursafi worked on behalf of the IRGC Qods Force, which has a unit known as 840 that is responsible for developing lethal plotting operations. Asghar Bagheri led Unit 840 until his death in April 2026, the bureau said. It gave no further detail.

The three people on the new posters are:

• Mohammad Reza Ansari, described as a deputy in the unit who has supported IRGC operations in Syria. The FBI alleges that, with Poursafi's support, he planned and attempted to assassinate two former U.S. officials.
• Abolfazl Alizadeh, a battalion commander in the Basij Imam Ali Battalion who allegedly took part in lethal plotting.
• Mohammad Hossein Shamoradizadeh, also a battalion commander in the same battalion, with the same allegation.

These are seeking-information notices, not a Most Wanted listing, and the FBI has not announced charges against the three in this release.

The Treasury Department sanctioned Ansari and Poursafi in June 2023, accusing them of planning assassination attempts against two former U.S. officials. Treasury said Ansari belonged to a Qods Force external operations unit targeting Iranian dissidents and other nationals in the United States, the Middle East and Europe.

Iran International reported in December 2022, citing leaked documents, that Ansari led a failed operation targeting Bolton and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. That report also named Poursafi and Alizadeh as members of his team, along with a commander it called Mohammad Hossein Shahmoradi. The FBI's release does not name Pompeo.

Why the FBI is doing this now

Gregory Heeb, special agent in charge of the Washington Field Office's Counterterrorism Division, said: "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." He added that the bureau hopes the publicity from the posters "will help us continue to disrupt lethal plots and bring IRGC members to justice for threatening individuals within our borders."

The listing came the same day a New York grand jury handed up a separate indictment. Prosecutors allege that indictment ties Iranian military operatives to a failed attack plan against RAF Fairford, the UK base where U.S. B-1 bombers were stationed. That case involves different defendants and a different plot. The Poursafi listing is a 2022 case being given a public push, not a new charge.

The bureau has not said whether the timing is connected to any new information on Poursafi's whereabouts or on the other three men. It remains unclear whether the posters and the $20 million reward will produce anything that moves a four-year-old complaint toward an arrest. The FBI has announced none for any of the four.