Payment status of $5m Daniel Kinahan reward to be kept secret to protect informants

The status of the $5 million (€4.3 million) reward offered by US law enforcement for the capture of alleged crime boss Daniel Kinahan will never be published to protect confidential informants.Kinahan is now officially categorised as “captured” by the US department of state following his detention in and extradition from the United Arab Emirates.However, the reward offered by US law enforcement for the alleged crime boss is not eligible to be paid out until a conviction has been secured.The US state department will never publish whether the reward has been paid to protect anyone who may have acted as a confidential informant, a senior US security source told The Irish Times.READ MOREKinahan was last week charged with directing an organised crime group in front of the Special Criminal Court.A change to US law passed in 2013 allows for convictions in any jurisdiction to permit reward payments under the scheme.The charges before Kinahan relate to a period between October 2015 and April 2017. It is unclear whether information given to authorities about alleged offences outside that time frame would allow informants to claim under the scheme.The multimillion-dollar reward was initially placed on April 12th, 2022, under the US Transnational Organised Crime Rewards Program, for information leading to his arrest and/or conviction.The widely-shared “wanted”-style poster of Kinahan offering the reward has recently been amended on the US state department’s website with the word “captured” added across it.It is understood no payments for information leading to his arrest have been paid out under this programme.Classified US security documentation partially released under Freedom of Information laws detail how any US embassy or government department contacted by a confidential informant may propose a payment under the scheme.The payment can be “up to” $5 million, and while the factors determining the level of payment remain classified, it is understood they include the nature of the material evidence provided and the risk posed to the individual.The US secretary of state is the person authorised to determine whether a reward will be paid and the amount to be rewarded. The programme allows for payments of up to $25 million.In cases where there is federal criminal jurisdiction, the payment requires the agreement of the US attorney general.The state department would not comment regarding the rewards offered for members of the Kinahan family and does not comment on its individual investigations.Separately, there are similar $5 million rewards for Daniel’s father, Christy Kinahan snr, and brother, Christopher jnr. These rewards are still on offer for courtroom-grade information on the pair, both of whom remain living openly in Dubai.