The United States announced sanctions on an Iranian cryptocurrency exchange controlled by sanctioned Iranian financier Babak Zanjani on Thursday, accusing it of processing payments for ships to transit safely through the Strait of Hormuz.
Treasury said BitBank had routed hundreds of millions of dollars to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and described the exchange as a key component in Iran’s digital assets-based sanctions-evasion infrastructure. The exchange was used to transfer funds paid to Iran's newly established Hormuz Safe Marine Services Authority, Treasury said in a statement.
Zanjani has long been a key figure in Iran’s sanctions-evasion networks. He was sentenced to death by Iranian authorities in 2016 for embezzlement. His sentence was commuted in 2024.
The following year he re-emerged as a backer of Iranian government economic projects.
The designation is part of Treasury's “Operation Economic Outcast” intended to isolate Iran economically and disrupt Iran's global financial, commercial and logistical networks, according to the statement. The strategy has targeted Iran’s illicit oil trade, financial intermediaries, exchange houses and shipping, aviation and front companies.
The US also sanctioned Pishtaz Simorgh Electronic Trade Company, the software developer behind BitBank, and three close associates of Zanjani, Hossein Ali Zaker Hossein, Mohammad Mahdi Zaker Hossein and Seyed Adel Heidari.
Treasury announced sanctions against Zanjani and his two largest digital asset projects, Zedcex Exchange Limited and Zedxion Exchange Limited in January, accusing them of laundering money for the IRGC.
In July the US imposed sanctions against nine other firms that Zanjani is involved in, including his Iran-based "Dot One" conglomerate and other firms based in Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, as well as top executives at those firms.
“Through this combined infrastructure, Zanjani's enterprises have served as both public-facing commercial ventures and covert financial platforms enabling sanctions evasion and support to Iranian state-linked entities,” Treasury said.
(Reporting by Gavin Finch; Editing by Lori Hinnant and Cynthia Osterman)
