Babak Zanjani, a businessman with close ties to Iran's government, was released from death row in 2024 after serving an 11-year prison sentence for embezzlement. Initially sentenced to death in 2016 for embezzling the equivalent of 2.5 billion euros, his sentence was officially commuted after he repaid his debts. However, Zanjani is now under U.S. scrutiny for allegedly resuming activities that support the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the Iranian regime. The U.S. Treasury has sanctioned Zanjani, accusing him of funding major projects that support the IRGC and of setting up a network of digital asset companies to launder money on behalf of the regime. U.S. authorities allege that Zanjani is involved in a scheme where Iran seeks to charge "tolls" in the Strait of Hormuz, offering paid insurance to ships using the strait. According to the Treasury, two companies were created for this purpose, including the "Hormuz Safe Marine Services Authority," which used BitBank, an Iranian cryptocurrency exchange platform linked to Zanjani, to transfer payments in cryptocurrencies. Since June, several hundred million dollars in bitcoins have passed through this system. A dozen companies linked to Zanjani have been sanctioned by the United States since January, including two registered in the United Kingdom (Zedcex Exchange Limited and Zedxion Exchange Limited), which were used to fund the IRGC. TRM Labs, a company specializing in financial violations on the blockchain, identified approximately one billion dollars in funds linked to the IRGC, or about 56% of the transaction volume observed between 2023 and 2025. According to an investigation by the Wall Street Journal, Zanjani transferred 850 million dollars in two years to the IRGC via Binance, the main cryptocurrency exchange platform. Binance refutes this claim, and Zanjani denies the allegations, stating that the sanctions imposed by the U.S. Treasury are a "pure invention by Mr. Trump." Zanjani is active on social media, promoting his new conglomerate, DotOne, involved in transportation. Shortly after his release, he announced an investment of 800 million dollars with a national company in the railway network. Zanjani's early life included working as a seller of sheep skins and later becoming involved in the foreign exchange markets. He started exporting sheep skins to Turkey, where they were tanned into leather, and later imported rare products into Iran. His business thrived until he was approached by a branch of the IRGC, which he helped repatriate funds from abroad despite Western sanctions. He created a bank in Tajikistan and took shares in another in Malaysia, using these to transfer Iranian oil and money to Turkey, converting it into gold, and secretly transporting it to Iran. He claimed to have transferred 17.5 billion dollars through these channels. However, with the election of reformist Hassan Rohani in 2013, Zanjani was targeted and prosecuted for "corruption on earth," leading to a five-month trial and a death sentence. His execution was suspended until he repaid the embezzled amounts or until he was useful again.