US offers $15 million for information on IRGC drone program

The company is identified as Kimia Part Sivan Company (KIPAS).

“KIPAS officials have conducted unmanned aerial vehicle flight tests for the IRGC-Quds Force and have provided technical assistance for IRGC-QF UAVs transferred to Iraq for use in IRGC-QF operations,” the State Department’s Rewards for Justice program said in its announcement on Monday.

The company has also sourced key drone components from foreign suppliers, according to US officials.

The IRGC has provided funding and weapons to groups outside Iran, including Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis in Yemen and militias in Iraq. The US Treasury has linked the IRGC’s drone sales, including to Russia, to broader Iranian military financing.

In April, Washington sanctioned six senior KIPAS officials—Hasan Arambunezhad, Abolfazl Ramazanzadeh Moshkani, Mehdi Ghaffari Naghneh, Reza Nahar Dani, Abbas Sartaji, and Hadi Jamshidi Zavaraki—for acting on behalf of the IRGC-QF.

The Treasury had previously blacklisted KIPAS in 2021 for its role in supplying drones.

Under the sanctions, all assets linked to KIPAS and its designated officials within US jurisdiction are frozen. Financial institutions engaging with them could also face penalties.

The Trump administration listed the IRGC as a terrorist organization as part of his ‘maximum pressure’ after he withdrew from the JCPOA in 2018.

Last week, Rewards for Justice offered a reward of up to $20 million for information leading to the location, recovery, and return of Robert Levinson, who disappeared in Iran's Kish Island in March 2007.

The reward also included information "leading to the identification, location, arrest, or conviction of any person responsible for his disappearance."

Two Iranian intelligence officers (Mohammad Baseri and Ahmad Khazai) have been named by US authorities in connection to Levison's disappearance.

In 2020, the US treasury sanctioned Baseri and Khazai.