a meeting, but I haven't followed up on it. I thought they'd come to some kind of an agreement. CBS' John Miller said that "tacit admission that he's in their custody and that there have been talks", in and of itself, "is a big step". In a 2008 interview with NBC's Brian Williams, Ahmadinejad was questioned regarding Levinson's case and its status. He responded: There was a claim made some time ago, some people came over, the gentleman's family came over. They talked and met with our officials and were given our responses. I see no reason for a person who was given an Iranian visa and — came into Iran, arrived in Iran through official channels, to have problems here. Our security officials and agents have expressed their willingness to assist the FBI, if the FBI has any information about his travels around the world. We have said that we are ready to help, to assist with that matter. There are certain informations that only the FBI at the moment has. I am not an expert in that field, as you might appreciate, so I'm not going to make a judgment here whether that information, as they say, is true and only held by the FBI or other parties for that matter. Hassan Rouhani In an interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour during her trip to the United Nations General Assembly in September 2013, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani spoke of cooperation regarding Levinson's case. "We are willing to help, and all the intelligence services in the region can come together to gather information about him to find his whereabouts", Rouhani told Amanpour, "and we're willing to cooperate on that". In a subsequent interview with Charlie Rose, Rouhani said, "As to where his whereabouts when he disappeared, I personally have no information on those details, but naturally when someone disappears their family is suffering in specific. Everyone must help. It's natural that everyone must help". Reported death In March 2020, it was reported that Levinson's family and the United States government had concluded that it was likely that Levinson had died in Iranian custody before 2020. On 5 October 2020, a US Court ordered the Government of Iran to pay more than $1.4 billion in punitive and compensatory damages to Levinson's family. The money that will be paid to Levinson's family will come from Iranian assets that were frozen in 1980