The U.S. State Department announced on Wednesday that it is offering up to $15 million for information leading to the disruption of operations surrounding Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, including its alleged oil-for-money scheme.
The department is seeking details related to the IRGC’s entities and individuals, firms or people aiding the IRGC to evade U.S. sanctions, the IRGC transferring funding and material to its terrorist and military allies and other activities.
The $15 million is part of the department’s Rewards for Justice program.
The United States designated the IRGC as a terrorist group in April.
Wednesday’s development is part of the Trump administration’s maximum pressure campaign against Iran since withdrawing from the 2015 nuclear deal in May 2018, reimposing sanctions lifted under it along with enacting new financial penalties against the regime.
In related news, the U.S. State and Treasury departments announced sanctions against a large shipping network that allegedly financially supports and is directed by the IRGC-Quds Force and Hezbollah, also a terrorist group.
“Iran continues to take provocative actions to destabilize the region and the world. Treasury’s action against this sprawling petroleum network makes it explicitly clear that those purchasing Iranian oil are directly supporting Iran’s militant and terrorist arm, the IRGC-Quds Force,” said U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. “Our actions over the last two weeks should serve as a strong warning to anyone considering facilitating the Quds Force’s oil sales that there will be swift consequences.”
Sigal Mandelker, U.S. Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, also said regarding the stated sanctions on Wednesday that “the Iranian regime is leveraging a terrorist organization as its chief conduit for obfuscating and selling hundreds of millions of dollars of illicit oil to fuel its nefarious agenda. Iran’s exportation of oil directly funds acts of terrorism by Iranian proxies and atrocities by the [Bashar] Assad regime against innocent people. This vast oil-for-terror shipping network demonstrates how economically reliant Tehran is on the IRGC-QF [Quds Force] and [Hezbollah]h as financial lifelines.
“The international community must vehemently reject Iranian oil and related products in the same way that it rejects the violent acts of terrorism these networks fund,” she said.