The McDonald's restaurant employee who helped police trace a suspect in connection with the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare's CEO could be shortchanged out of the hefty $60,000 reward.
Brian Thompson, 50, was gunned down in New York last week in an apparent targeted attack.
He was shot in the back on Wednesday (December 4) outside the Hilton hotel in Midtown Manhattan, where the medical insurance company he ran, UnitedHealthcare, was holding an investors' meeting.
A 26-year-old man has since been charged with murder of Thompson.
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Luigi Mangione was taken into custody at a McDonald's restaurant in the town of Altoona, Pennsylvania on Monday (December 9), after an employee reportedly alerted police.
The cops had launched a widespread manhunt for their suspect and appealed to the public for their help in tracking him down.
New York Police Department offered a reward of $10,000 for anyone with information on their suspect.
The search then grew over the weekend ,as the FBI backed the NYPD in the investigation, adding an additional $50,000 to the pot, and hundreds of tips poured in.
The McDonald's worker said they saw Mangione around 9.15am 'acting suspiciously' in the restaurant, adding that he appeared to have fraudulent documents.
Mangione was then arrested with five charges at the scene, as officers found he was in possession of fake IDs, a 'ghost' gun, silencer, clothes, and a mask matching the one that the suspected shooter was captured wearing.
Just hours later, investigators charged Mangione with murder and four other counts, including firearms charges.
The tip-off from the employee is apparently crucial in the case, but the question remains if the worker will be able to cash in on the $60k reward at all.The rules are complicated, as they stipulate tipsters in with a chance of the FBI portion of the reward cannot nominate themselves.
This means the McDonald's worker will have to be put forward by an investigating agency, such as the Department of Defense or the FBI, which is then reviewed by an interagency committee.
If approved, the suggestion is passed on to the Secretary of State, who signs off on the final decision.
If that's not tough enough, the full reward amount could also be in dispute as payment amounts are based on factors from the value of the information provided, the level of threat, the severity of danger or injury to people or property, and the degree of the source's cooperation.
As for the NYPD's $10k, the rewards program is granted through Crime Stoppers, where tipsters receive a unique reference number.
This number is crucial as the tipster has to use it call back or check the status of the investigation online before lodging a claim with the NYC Police Foundation and the Crime Stoppers Board of Directors, who ultimately decide whether to approve the tip and instruct the caller how to receive it.
So, if the informant called 911 instead of Crime Stoppers, they might be unable to make the claim.
In both cases, the rewards will only be paid out if the arrest leads to indictment or conviction from the court - so the McDonald's employee could be waiting a while and even at the end of it all, might not even get a dime.
Liv Bridge