Treasury sanctioned four people and nine companies tied to the Iranian financier Babak Zanjani, reaching his gold, rail, and digital-asset ventures

The Treasury sanctioned four people and nine companies on Friday. Its Office of Foreign Assets Control said they form key parts of a sanctions evasion network built by Babak Zanjani, an Iranian businessman it has pursued before.

Treasury described a wide portfolio. It named financial services, gold and precious gem production, digital asset trading, and large transportation and infrastructure projects, and said Zanjani has used the mix to hide ownership, launder revenue, and move money covertly through Iran and offshore. The action targets his Iran-based Dot One conglomerate and a group of firms outside Iran that Treasury says prop up two digital asset exchanges, Zedcex and Zedxion. OFAC had already designated Zanjani and both exchanges on January 30. It says the exchanges were used in part to launder money for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

The record on Zanjani is unusual. Iran sentenced him to death in 2016 for embezzling from the state oil company, then commuted the sentence in 2024, and by 2025 he had re-emerged in public as a backer of regime-linked ventures. One was an April 2025 rail contract, worth $800m, with the Islamic Republic of Iran Railways.

Secretary Scott Bessent tied the move to Iran's economy, saying the regime continues to pay a steep price and pointing to a fresh record low in the rial. The designations block any US assets of those named and prohibit Americans from dealing with them.