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Friday, July 24, 2026
US hits network of Iranian financier Zanjani with more sanctions
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The United States imposes sanctions against nine firms and four people in the business network of sanctioned Iranian financier Babak Zanjani for evading sanctions.
The sanctions add to a broader US campaign of military and economic pressure on Iran. The country’s currency has hit record lows, inflation exceeds 60% and US strikes have intensified from the north to the south of the country.
The US Treasury Department says the new designations target Zanjani’s Iran-based operations under his “Dot One” conglomerate and several firms based in Turkey and the United Arab Emirates that have supported his already designated digital asset exchanges, as well as top executives at those firms.
Treasury says Zanjani had leveraged a diverse portfolio that includes financial services, digital asset trading and gold and precious gem production, along with major infrastructure projects, to launder revenue and move funds covertly for Iran.
“The United States is holding Babak Zanjani and his sprawling network accountable for enabling the Iranian regime to evade sanctions and finance its destabilizing activities, including supporting the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps,” says State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says Iran is already paying a “steep economic price for its reckless behavior, with the rial plunging to another record low and inflation up massively.”
Treasury will continue cutting off economic access for members of the Iranian government and their financiers, he says.
Zanjani, a billionaire convicted of fraud, has long been a key figure in Iran’s sanctions-evasion network. He was sentenced to death by Iranian authorities in 2016 for embezzlement. His sentence was commuted in 2024, and he re-emerged as a backer of Iranian government economic projects by 2025, Treasury says.
Also designated were Istanbul-based Zedpay Finansal Sistem Ve Hizmetleri Anonim Sirketi (Zedpay), Dubai-based Zedx DMCC (Zedx) and BZ Diamond FZCO (BZ Diamond), and Zanjani’s partner, Solmaz Bani.
The Times of Israel Community.