An anonymous benefactor has given German fraud investigation company Wifka $32 million dollars as bait in their bid to find out who was responsible for downing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 in Ukraine on July 17.
Wifka says it doesn’t know exactly who the benefactor is, but the offer is genuine because it has already received a fee of $57,000 to begin its investigation.
Wifka boss Josef Resch told NBC News he would receive another $720,000 if the investigation was successful.
The bounty, which some media are saying is the largest ever, will be paid to the person or organisation which can identify:
Who shot down MH17 on July 17?
Who gave the order?
Who covered up the shoot down? (Also, if it was by accident and not out of political, economic or military motivation)
Who can provide details on the circumstances that led to the shoot down?
Who was directly involved with the shoot down?
What happened to the people that were involved with the shoot down?
What happened to the weapon used?
Who can name the people that cleared the shoot down?
“The money is securely deposited in Zurich, Switzerland,” Wifka said. “It will be paid there or in a different neutral place of the whistle-blower’s choice.”
All 298 passengers and crew onboard MH17 were killed in the crash, which the Dutch Safety Board last week confirmed was hit by a “large number of high-energy impacts”.
More than two-thirds of the victims were from the Netherlands, another 38 were Australians.
The overwhelming suspicion in regard to who shot the plane down is on pro-Russian rebels using a BUK missile system supplied from Russia.
The separatists have mostly denied ever possessing such missiles, although one separatist leader told Reuters in July that they did in fact have one on the day the plane was shot down.
Moscow denies supplying the rebels with weapons.
Resch said he had been briefed in several different meetings in various countries about the reward, and claimed one of the middlemen had a Swiss accent.
He said there was a possibility the reward was being offered by powerful Russian businessmen trying to hurt President Vladimir Putin’s reputation.
The Wifka statement advises anyone with information to “take great care; e.g. to contact them through a lawyer”.