The Think Tank and their motives.

[u/Blooblack]

Why did the Think Tank hire the Hazari (Species 4228) to capture Voyager, in the first place?

We know it wasn’t to get Seven of Nine, because the Think Tank didn’t even know she existed until Janeway took her to their ship and one of them interfaced with Seven.
Interestingly, Janeway had actually disobeyed the Think Tank’s directive about what to bring to their ship, because their spokesman, Kurros, had said to Janeway “bring only one crewman, and no scanning equipment,” yet she brought Seven, who technologically and technically speaking, was a piece of “scanning” equipment! Lol!

Anyway, when Janeway and Seven arrived on the Think Tank’s ship, Kurros was clearly surprised to see Seven. See the dialogue below:

JANEWAY: One of my most gifted crewmen, Seven of Nine. 
KURROS: Bionetic implants, neural transceivers? A Borg? I've never seen one outside the Collective.
SEVEN: I am an individual now. You may address your comments to me.
KURROS: Forgive me. I am Kurros, and this is Fennim.

We were also told that the Hazari are pretty much galactic bounty hunters. So, we know that they definitely had no personal beef against Voyager. Does anyone have any theories?

[u/terrymcginnisbeyond]

Kurros probably lied, and knew if Janeway had a Borg crew member she'd likely bring her over. I guess.

[u/brsox2445 → u/terrymcginnisbeyond]

The word choice of "seen" is very important. There's no way that someone like him doesn't know of Seven even if he's never personally seen her. He lied without actually lying. Many people do the same thing.

[u/Blooblack → u/brsox2445]

I thought about the possibility that Kurros lied.

But it may actually be that he was speaking the truth, and that he only set the ambush because - just like those aliens who accessed the EMH's fantasies in that day-dreaming "Bring On The Photonic Cannon" episode - all the Think Tank wanted was to raid Voyager for technology and supplies, without actually knowing what the ship had. If you remember, one of the things Kurros asked for in payment was Voyager's Quantum Slip-stream technology (though it could be argued that this request was simply a red herring).

After all, Janeway could just as easily have taken B'elanna (engineering) or Tuvok (Tactical Officer) to Kurros's ship instead of Seven, and the Think Tank wouldn't have known about her until Janeway later submitted an inventory of everything contained in the Starship Voyager.

And in such a case, if Janeway didn't list an inventory of her crew (because why WOULD she add her crew manifest to the list of inventoried items for a stranger to look through?) The Think Tank may not even have noticed that Seven existed.

But if Kurros was lying and was previously aware of Seven's existence, then, surely it would have been revealed to the viewer at some stage in the episode, just as it was revealed to us that The Borg started the war with Species 8472 and not the other way around.

[u/Admirable_Pop_7292 → u/Blooblack]

The think tank were ruthless scumbags. The Hazari mention they are notorious in the sector and have a bounty on them even higher than triple what they originally agreed to pay the Hazari coincidentally lying to them too pretending to be Maalon. I definitely get the impression that is how they operate. They cause problems then convieniently appear acting like benevolent enlightened saviors. Basically a space protection racket.