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The FBI Washington Field Office on Tuesday, November 10, added Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps member Shahram Poursafi to its Most Wanted Terrorists list. The bureau also released seeking-information posters on three of his alleged associates from the IRGC's Qods Force.
According to the FBI, Poursafi, who also uses the name Mehdi Rezayi, solicited the murder of two former U.S. government officials between October 2021 and April 2022. Court documents say he tried to hire people in the United States to carry out the killings and offered $300,000. Investigators believe the plot was likely retaliation for the January 2020 death of Qods Force commander Qasem Soleimani.
Fox News reports that one of the targets was former National Security Advisor John Bolton. Citing the 2022 Justice Department complaint, it says Poursafi first asked a U.S. resident he had met online to photograph Bolton, claiming the images were for a book. He later offered another U.S. contact up to $300,000 to kill Bolton and mentioned a second job that would pay $1 million. That contact was a confidential human source working with the FBI, and the plot went no further.
The August 2022 complaint charged Poursafi 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. He remains at large. The State Department's Rewards for Justice program is offering up to $20 million for information that leads to his arrest and conviction.
The three associates named on the new posters are Mohammad Reza Ansari, Abolfazl Alizadeh and Mohammad Hossein Shamoradizadeh. The FBI describes Ansari as a deputy in Qods Force Unit 840, which develops lethal plotting operations, and says he has supported Qods Force operations in Syria. With Poursafi's support, Ansari allegedly planned and attempted to assassinate the two former officials. Alizadeh and Shamoradizadeh are battalion commanders in the Basij Imam Ali Battalion and have allegedly taken part in lethal plotting.
According to the FBI, Unit 840 was led by Qods Force commander Asghar Bagheri until his death in April 2026. In June 2023, the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control designated both Ansari and Poursafi for acting on behalf of the Qods Force.
"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," said Gregory Heeb, special agent in charge of the Washington Field Office's Counterterrorism Division.
The FBI is asking anyone with information about the four men to call 1-800-CALL-FBI or submit a tip at tips.fbi.gov. Information can also go to a local FBI office or the nearest U.S. embassy or consulate.
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