The FBI has added Shahram Poursafi, a member of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps charged in 2022 with trying to hire someone to kill former National Security Advisor John Bolton, to its Most Wanted Terrorists list. The State Department's Rewards for Justice program is offering up to $20 million for information leading to his arrest or conviction.

The FBI's Washington Field Office announced the listing on Tuesday, Nov. 10, and released "seeking information" posters on three people it describes as associates of the Revolutionary Guard. Poursafi, 50, is listed as based in Iran. He has not been arrested and is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.

What the FBI's notice says

Poursafi's wanted notice says he is wanted for "the attempted murder for hire of former high-ranking United States Government (USG) officials." It describes him as a uniformed member of the Revolutionary Guard, which the U.S. designates as a foreign terrorist organization, and says he is "assessed to have allegedly worked on behalf of" its Qods Force to hire people in the United States "to murder two former USG officials."

The notice does not name either official. The 2022 complaint named only Bolton as a target, though it also described a second "job." It lists four aliases, among them Mehdi Rezayi, and gives a birth date of Sept. 21, 1976.

What the 2022 charges describe

A man in a dark suit speaks at a microphone stand outside the White House while a crowd of photographers and reporters with cameras faces him
John Bolton, then national security adviser, talks to reporters outside the West Wing on May 1, 2019.The White House (Tia Dufour) / Wikimedia Commons.jpg) / Public domain

The Justice Department unsealed a criminal complaint against Poursafi in Washington on Aug. 10, 2022. Prosecutors said the plot was likely revenge for the January 2020 U.S. strike that killed Qasem Soleimani, the Qods Force commander, and named Bolton as the target.

According to the court papers, it started in October 2021 with a request for photographs of Bolton, supposedly for a book. A contact of Poursafi's in the United States then introduced him to someone who was in fact a confidential informant.

Over the next several months, prosecutors say, Poursafi offered that person $250,000 and then $300,000 to kill Bolton in Washington or Maryland. He passed along Bolton's office address and details about his schedule that did not appear to be public, said his "group" would want video proof, and told the source to talk about the job as if it were a construction project. He also offered another "job" worth $1 million and later said surveillance of a second target had already been done "from the United States."

The only payment the complaint describes was a test. In April 2022, after the source refused to keep working without pay, Poursafi sent $100 in cryptocurrency to show that payment could be made, the complaint says.

The charges and penalties

The stone front of a federal courthouse with a carved relief panel and the words E. Barrett Prettyman United States Court House
The E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Courthouse in Washington, home of the federal court where the complaint was unsealed, in July 2026.G. Edward Johnson / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 4.0

The complaint charges Poursafi with using interstate commerce facilities in a murder-for-hire plot and with providing material support to a transnational murder plot. The first count carries up to 10 years in prison and the second up to 15, each with a fine of up to $250,000. A complaint contains allegations, and no trial has been held.

The FBI's Washington Field Office is handling the case. Anyone with information can submit a tip to the FBI or to Rewards for Justice.