Reward for Luigi Mangione’s tipster may get time : NPR

Luigi Mangione, the suspect in the UnitedHealthcare CEO shooting, was arrested this week — five days and about 300 miles from the crime scene — after a customer recognized him at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pa.

The eagle-eyed tipster, who has not been publicly identified, notified an employee, who then called 911, say the authorities. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said the person who saw Mangione is a “hero.”

But will these tipsters earn a payout? The answer is complicated.

During the days-long, multistate manhunt, both state and federal law enforcement officials offered a reward for information: $10,000 from New York Police and up to $50,000 from the FBI.

“The person in Pennsylvania who called in a tip is eligible to receive the reward,” he writes NYC Police Foundationwho administers the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Program, confirmed to NPR on Friday.

However, there are several strong bonds attached.

Notably, both the NYPD and the FBI determine that the tips must lead to an “arrest and conviction.” (The NYPD typically only requires an arrest and indictment, but the threshold is higher for rewards above $3,500, the foundation said.)

Mangione was arrested on five charges in Pennsylvania, including illegal possession of a firearm and forgery, and later charged with murder in New York. He is fighting extradition, a move lawyers say is unlikely to succeed but could delay the process by up to a few weeks — meaning a trial, let alone a potential conviction, is still several steps away.

Even if that happens, it is not guaranteed that any one person will get the full $60,000, especially considering taxes and the possibility of the reward being shared between several people.

NYPD officials said more than 400 tips came in during the five-day period, with about 30 of them proving helpful about the gunman’s whereabouts, according to Associated Press.

Here’s what needs to happen for someone to get the reward.

How the NYPD tip line works

The NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Program encourages people to submit tips about violent crimes by calling a hotline or filling out an online form, a process that is completely anonymous.

Anyone who provides information will be given a reference number which they can use to follow up with the investigation either online or by phone after at least a week.

If that person’s tip leads to an arrest and indictment, they will receive a reward of up to $3,500. A committee of the New York City Police Foundation conducts a case-by-case review to determine the exact amount.

The foundation has partnered with the NYPD to administer the program since 1983. It says calls to Crime Stoppers have helped solve more than 5,600 violent crimes and resulted in over $3 million in approved rewards.

The federal reward process is even more complicated

Getting rewards from the FBI is considerably more involved.

It happens through Rewards for righteousness (RFJ), an interagency program administered by the State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security that offers rewards for information related to certain threats to national security, including terrorism.

In particular, individuals cannot initiate the process on their own. A US investigative agency – in this case the FBI – must first nominate an individual, which triggers a legal review of eligibility.

Then, an interagency committee evaluates the information from the nominating agency and makes a non-binding recommendation to the Secretary of State, who has the ultimate discretion over whether to approve an award and how much it should be.

Reward offers can reach up to $25 million, according to the State Department.

The department says determining factors include “the value of the information provided; the level of threat mitigated by the information received; the seriousness of the danger or harm to US persons or property presented by the threat; the risk to a source and his/her family ; and the degree of cooperation of a source.”

Since its inception in 1984, RFJ has paid over $250 million to more than 125 individuals whose efforts have “saved countless lives.” according to its website.

Because of the program’s emphasis on confidentiality, authorities do not publicly share details of rewards—they typically do not even publicize that a reward has been paid, with the exception of some high-profile cases.

RFJ paid $2 million for information leading to the capture of Pakistan in 1995 Ramzi Yousefone of the people convicted in the 1993 World Trade Center truck bombing. In 2014, it paid $3 million to a person who shared information that led to the arrest and conviction of Ahmed Abu Khattalahthe architect of the 2012 Benghazi attack.