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US Offers $10 Million Reward for Information on 3 Iranians over Hacking Scheme

This handout image provided by the State Department on September 14, 2022 shows the poster of Iranian cyber actors Ahmad Khatibi, Mansour Ahmadi, and Amir Hossein Nickaein Ravari, wanted for their involvement in a coordinated campaign that compromised hundreds of computer networks across the United States and abroad. (Photo by Handout / US DEPARTMENT OF STATE / AFP)
This handout image provided by the State Department on September 14, 2022 shows the poster of Iranian cyber actors Ahmad Khatibi, Mansour Ahmadi, and Amir Hossein Nickaein Ravari, wanted for their involvement in a coordinated campaign that compromised hundreds of computer networks across the United States and abroad. (Photo by Handout / US DEPARTMENT OF STATE / AFP)
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US Offers $10 Million Reward for Information on 3 Iranians over Hacking Scheme

This handout image provided by the State Department on September 14, 2022 shows the poster of Iranian cyber actors Ahmad Khatibi, Mansour Ahmadi, and Amir Hossein Nickaein Ravari, wanted for their involvement in a coordinated campaign that compromised hundreds of computer networks across the United States and abroad. (Photo by Handout / US DEPARTMENT OF STATE / AFP)
This handout image provided by the State Department on September 14, 2022 shows the poster of Iranian cyber actors Ahmad Khatibi, Mansour Ahmadi, and Amir Hossein Nickaein Ravari, wanted for their involvement in a coordinated campaign that compromised hundreds of computer networks across the United States and abroad. (Photo by Handout / US DEPARTMENT OF STATE / AFP)

The State Department is offering a $10 million reward for information leading to the capture of three Iranians, who it said have worked for tech companies linked to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps.

The Iranians have been charged with trying to extort hundreds of thousands of dollars from organizations in the United States, Europe, Iran and Israel, including a domestic violence shelter, by hacking in to their computer systems, US officials said on Wednesday.

Other targets included local US governments, regional utilities in Mississippi and Indiana, accounting firms and a state lawyers' association, according to charges filed by the US Justice Department.

The defendants, named Mansour Ahmadi, Ahmad Khatibi and Amir Hossein Nikaein, are citizens of Iran who own or are employed by private technology companies in the country.

The Treasury Department also imposed sanctions on the three Iranians, as well as several other individuals and two organizations they said were part of Tehran's "malicious" cyber and ransomware activity.

“The government of Iran has created a safe haven where cybercriminals acting for personal gain flourish and defendants like these are able to hack and extort victims, including critical infrastructure providers,” said Matthew G. Olsen, the assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s national security division.

The men remain at large in Iran, and prosecutors said they were highly unlikely to face trial in the United States. Officials said they hoped that by exposing the group, they might prevent future attacks.

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France Holds Day of Mourning for Mayotte Islands Devastated by Cyclone

French President Emmanuel Macron (C-R) and his wife Brigitte Macron (C-L) stand for a minute of silence at the Elysee Palace during a day of national mourning for the lives lost after a cyclone hit the Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte, in Paris, France, 23 December 2024. (EPA)
French President Emmanuel Macron (C-R) and his wife Brigitte Macron (C-L) stand for a minute of silence at the Elysee Palace during a day of national mourning for the lives lost after a cyclone hit the Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte, in Paris, France, 23 December 2024. (EPA)
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France Holds Day of Mourning for Mayotte Islands Devastated by Cyclone

French President Emmanuel Macron (C-R) and his wife Brigitte Macron (C-L) stand for a minute of silence at the Elysee Palace during a day of national mourning for the lives lost after a cyclone hit the Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte, in Paris, France, 23 December 2024. (EPA)
French President Emmanuel Macron (C-R) and his wife Brigitte Macron (C-L) stand for a minute of silence at the Elysee Palace during a day of national mourning for the lives lost after a cyclone hit the Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte, in Paris, France, 23 December 2024. (EPA)

France held a national day of mourning for Mayotte, its Indian Ocean territory devastated by a violent cyclone on Dec. 14, beginning in the morning on Monday with a minute of silence for the scores of residents left dead by the storm.

Cyclone Chido was the worst storm to hit Mayotte's two main islands in 90 years, and authorities have said that perhaps thousands of people may have been killed in its wake, though the government's death toll stands at 35.

To commemorate Mayotte's losses, French flags were lowered to half-mast. Separately, flags were flown at half-mast in Brussels and Strasbourg because of Mayotte, as well as following attacks last week on a German Christmas market and in a Croatian school.

"It is a communion in mourning," Prime Minister Francois Bayrou told reporters. He said the day showed solidarity for those in Mayotte, and that France was "present to reconstruct Mayotte and make sure the people of Mayotte feel surrounded by the entire country."

Following the storm, officials say corpses may have been buried quickly per religious custom, before they could be counted, and that many of the people killed may have been undocumented immigrants.

Mozambique has said 94 people died in the disaster, while 13 were killed in neighboring Malawi.

ANGER

The slow pace of aid and delays in the arrival of clean water have angered residents of Mayotte, France's poorest overseas territory located between Madagascar and Mozambique about 8,000 km (4971 miles) from the mainland, with some heckling President Emmanuel Macron during his visit last week.

For Mohamed Abdou, a doctor in Pamandzi, the day of French mourning was a political stunt and did not do enough to account for historic neglect leading up to this point.

"Whether in terms of hospitals, the lack of water infrastructure, electricity, and so on ... at this point, we need to say 'mea culpa' and acknowledge mistakes were made," he told Reuters, speaking from his town in the south of Mayotte's smaller island.

Francois-Noel Buffet, France's acting minister of overseas territories, told France 2 that water - a flashpoint even before the disaster - had made it to the island, saying: "We are not missing water. We have water, notably bottled water. We have a problem with distribution."

Buffet said he expected a special law on the reconstruction of Mayotte to be introduced in early January.

In Paris, Bayrou, France's fourth prime minister this year, is expected to unveil his cabinet Monday evening, though the timing was uncertain. The French presidency said the announcement would not take place before 6:00 p.m. (1700 GMT), to take into account the day of mourning.

Estelle Youssouffa, a lawmaker for Mayotte, criticized the government in an interview with Radio France Internationale for possibly making the announcement on the day of mourning, accusing Bayrou, who had not yet visited the islands, of "humiliating us a second time."