Babak Zanjani
Iranian financier convicted of $2.7bn oil-revenue embezzlement in 2016; sentence commuted, active again by 2025.
OFAC re-designated financier Babak Zanjani on 24 July 2026, naming nine firms and four associates across Iran, the UAE and Turkey as an expanded sanctions-evasion network under Executive Order 13902.
Last refreshed: 3 August 2026 · Appears in 1 active topic
Why is Washington still chasing a financier Tehran itself sentenced to death?
Timeline for Babak Zanjani
Mentioned in: Treasury goes quiet on Iran for days
Iran Conflict 2026Promoted HormuzSafe on social media
Iran Conflict 2026: Treasury names a Hormuz insurance racketMentioned in: OFAC clears 18 duplicates from the list
Iran Conflict 2026OFAC names four in Zanjani network
Iran Conflict 2026Background
Babak Zanjani built the Sorinet conglomerate into a key facilitator of Iranian oil sales during the earlier sanctions years, using gold-for-gas transactions routed through Turkey and Malaysia to move money around the banking blockade. Arrested in December 2013, he was convicted in March 2016 of embezzling roughly $2.7bn in state petroleum revenue and sentenced to death, a sentence Iran's own Supreme Court upheld the same year.
His sentence was commuted to 20 years' imprisonment in April 2024 after he returned an estimated $2.1bn in assets, and he was released. By 2025 he had re-emerged as chief executive and financial backer of the DotOne group, which secured an $800m rail contract with Iran's state railway, before the expanded July 2026 sanctions designation named the wider commercial network built around him.
OFAC widens his sanctions network
Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control designated a fresh network under Executive Order 13902 on 24 July 2026, naming nine firms and four associates in Iran, the UAE and Turkey, all tied to Zanjani, including the Tehran-based DotOne holding cluster and payment firms ZedX, BZ Diamond and ZedPay.
On 29 July, Treasury separately designated a Hormuz insurance scheme that Zanjani had promoted, HormuzSafe Marine Services Authority, which accepts Bitcoin as payment, also under Executive Order 13902; that listing extends the same sanctions-evasion architecture Treasury has built its case around since first designating two of his digital exchanges, Zedcex and Zedxion, in January 2026.
Who is Babak Zanjani?
Why was Babak Zanjani sentenced to death?
Is Babak Zanjani still in prison?
When did the US sanction Babak Zanjani's network again?
What is HormuzSafe Marine Services Authority?
