Babak Zanjani

OFAC re-designated Babak Zanjani on 24 July 2026 as the hub of an expanded sanctions-evasion network, naming nine firms and four associates across Iran, the UAE and Turkey under Executive Order 13902. Treasury says he has leveraged financial services, digital asset trading, gold and precious gem production, and transport infrastructure to launder revenue and move funds covertly for Iran.

Zanjani built the Sorinet conglomerate into a key facilitator of Iranian oil sales during the 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 $2.7 billion in state petroleum revenue and sentenced to death; Iran's Supreme Court upheld that sentence the same year.

His sentence was commuted to 20 years' imprisonment in April 2024 after he returned an estimated $2.1 billion 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 $800 million rail contract with Iran's state railway. OFAC first designated two of his digital exchanges, Zedcex and Zedxion, in January 2026; the July 2026 action expands that designation into the wider commercial network built around him.