Caution:

Ruhollah Bazghandi and Seyed Mohammad Forouzan, along with additional co-conspirators Hossein Sedighi and an individual known only as "Haj Taher", are wanted on charges of Murder-For-Hire, Conspiracy to Commit Murder-for-Hire, and Conspiracy to Violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. These charges relate to the alleged actions by the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran to target Iranian dissidents. The regime views these dissidents as enemies of the state because of their criticism of the regime’s human rights violations and their outspoken rhetoric against the Iranian Government.

On July 28, 2022, a member of an Eastern European criminal organization, was arrested with a loaded AK-47 style assault rifle and 66 rounds of ammunition near a prominent Iranian dissident’s home in Brooklyn, New York.  High-ranking members in the Eastern European criminal organization allegedly tasked the arrested individual to murder the prominent Iranian dissident. Bazghandi, Forouzan, and the other two men allegedly directed the murder-for-hire plot that resulted in the arrest. Bazghandi is a Brigadier General in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and served as a prior chief in an IRGC-IO Counterintelligence unit during the murder-for-hire plot. The United States Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control designated Bazghandi twice for his alleged role in lethal targeting and assassination plots against enemies of Iran. Bazghandi is alleged to have been in communication with the murder-for-hire network and allegedly monitored the victim and the effort to murder the victim.

In October of 2024, Bazghandi, Forouzan, and the other two men were indicted in the United States District Court, Southern District of New York, New York, New York, on the charges listed above and federal warrants were issued for their arrests on October 17, 2024.