Rewards for Justice

Rewards for Justice (RFJ) is a programme run by the US State Department's Diplomatic Security Service that pays financial rewards to individuals who provide actionable intelligence on persons or networks posing threats to US national security. Established by the Omnibus Diplomatic Security and Antiterrorism Act of 1986, it is one of the longest-running and largest government-sponsored informant incentive programmes in the world, with cumulative payouts exceeding $250 million and more than 100 successful cases attributed to information it generated. It operates through a secure tip website and anonymous reporting channels, with payments reached via intermediaries to protect source identities.

The programme spans a wide REMIT: terrorist financing, narco-terrorism, cybercriminal infrastructure, weapons proliferation, and sanctions evasion. Rewards are typically structured in bands, with the highest offers, up to $25 million, reserved for intelligence on major terrorist leaders. Offers are announced publicly to maximise the signal-value to potential informants and to apply reputational pressure on the targeted networks. The State Department periodically refreshes active offers to reflect current enforcement priorities, often co-ordinating announcements with parallel OFAC designations or FBI indictments to compound the legal and financial pressure on a target.

On 29 May 2026, RFJ posted an offer of up to $15 million for information on the financial mechanisms, network members, and activities of IRGC-linked financial facilitators, timed to coincide with the OFAC 'Economic Fury' action that designated SAIRAN and associated procurement ring members. The co-ordination reflected a deliberate US government strategy of layering informant incentives on top of sanctions designations to give individuals inside those networks a financial reason to defect or report.