Rewards for Justice is offering a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to the identification or location of any foreign person, including a foreign entity, who knowingly engaged or is engaging in interference in U.S. elections, as well as information leading to the prevention, frustration, or favorable resolution of an act of foreign election interference.
Iranian cyber company Emennet Pasargad (Emennet), formerly known as Eeleyanet Gostar and Net Peygard Samavat Company, led an attempted election influence campaign targeting the 2020 U.S. presidential election.
Starting in August 2020, Emennet actors conducted a multi-faceted campaign targeting the U.S. presidential election. As part of this effort, the actors obtained confidential U.S. voter information from at least one state election website;sent threatening email messages to intimidate voters;created and disseminated a video containing disinformation pertaining to purported but non-existent voting vulnerabilities;attempted to access, without authorization, several states’ voting-related websites;and successfully gained unauthorized access to a U.S. media company’s computer network. Emennet actors claimed affiliation with the Proud Boys in the voter intimidation and disinformation aspects of the campaign.
On November 18, 2021, the U.S. Department of the Treasury designated Emennet and six of its employees pursuant to Executive Order 13848 for attempting to influence the 2020 U.S. presidential election. Concurrently, Rewards for Justice highlighted Emennet cyber actors Seyyed Mohammad Hosein Musa Kazemi and Sajjad Kashian for their involvement in attempted foreign election interference in U.S. elections.
In addition to the 2020 election operation, Emennet previously conducted cyber-enabled information operations, including operations that used a false-flag persona.
FBI information indicates Emennet poses a broader cybersecurity threat outside of information operations. Since 2018, Emennet has conducted traditional cyber exploitation activity targeting several sectors, including news, shipping, travel (hotels and airlines), oil and petrochemical, financial, and telecommunications, in the United States, Europe, and the Middle East.
Anyone with information on Emennet Pasargad or associated entities and/or individuals linked to foreign interference in U.S. elections should contact Rewards for Justice via our Tor-based tips-reporting channel at: he5dybnt7sr6cm32xt77pazmtm65flqy6irivtflruqfc5ep7eiodiad.onion (Tor browser required).
