Overview
- The U.S. Treasury on July 24 expanded sanctions to designate nine firms and four individuals tied to Babak Morteza Zanjani’s Dot One conglomerate, reaching companies in Iran, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.
- Treasury named specific Dot One entities including Dot One Value Creation and Dot One Gold and also designated regional facilitators such as Istanbul’s Zedpay, Dubai’s Zedx DMCC and BZ Diamond along with several executives and family members.
- Officials said Zanjani used a mix of digital asset platforms, cross‑border payment services, gold and gem dealers and large infrastructure projects to move and launder revenue for Iran and related actors.
- The move builds on OFAC’s January 30 designations of Zanjani and two UK‑registered exchanges and follows reporting that those exchanges reportedly handled large volumes of transactions since 2022, a figure that remains reported rather than an official Treasury estimate.
- The designations raise the risk that customers of the named platforms could lose access to funds and are likely to prompt banks and crypto firms to tighten checks on UK‑registered exchanges and cross‑border payments while increasing pressure on Iran’s financial channels.