$10M Award Offered for Info on Foreign Interference in US Elections

WASHINGTON — The State Department is offering a reward of up to $10 million for information on foreign interference in U.S. elections. 

The effort, which is being administered by the department’s Rewards for Justice program, is seeking 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.

Also eligible for consideration for a reward is information leading to the prevention, frustration or favorable resolution of an act of foreign election interference. 

In an emailed announcement, the department said it is seeking information on the Internet Research Agency LLC, Yevgeniy Viktorovich Prigozhin, and linked Russian entities and associates for their engagement in U.S. election interference.

The Internet Research Agency, or IRA, is a Russian entity long believed to have been engaged in political and electoral interference operations. 

Beginning as early as 2014, IRA began operations to interfere with the U.S. political system, including the 2016 U.S. presidential election, with a strategic goal to sow discord, the department said. 

At the time it was known to have operated through a number of Russian entities, including Internet Research LLC, MediaSintez LLC, GlavSet LLC, MixInfo LLC, Azimut LLC and NovInfo LLC.

Yevgeniy Viktorovich Prigozhin is a Russian national who provided funding to the Internet Research Agency through the companies he controlled, including Concord Management and Consulting LLC and Concord Catering. 

Concord sent funds, recommended personnel, and oversaw IRA’s activities through reporting and interaction with IRA’s management.

The State Department also named a number of individuals it says helped carry out IRA’s election interference operations targeting the United States.

They are Mikhail Ivanovich Bystrov, Mikhail Leonidovich Burchik, Aleksandra Yuryevna Krylova, Anna Vladislavovna Bogacheva, Sergey Pavlovich Polozov, Maria Anatolyevna Bovda, Robert Sergeyevich Bovda, Dzheykhun Nasimi Ogly Aslanov, Vadim Vladimirovich Podkopaev, Gleb Igorevich Vasilchenko, Irina Viktorovna Kaverzina and Vladimir Venkov.

According to the U.S. government, these individuals “knowingly and intentionally” conspired to defraud the United States by interfering with the U.S. political and electoral processes, including the presidential election of 2016.

To date, Rewards for Justice has paid out in excess of $250 million to more than 125 people across the globe who provided actionable information that helped resolve threats to U.S. national security.

For more information, visit www.rewardsforjustice.net. 

Dan can be reached at [email protected] and @DanMcCue