Iranian tycoon Babak Zanjani, whom the US has sanctioned for processing funds for Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, carried out cryptocurrency transactions worth some $850 million on behalf of the regime on the world’s largest crypto exchange, Binance, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.

The transactions are said to have taken place over two years, with most of them originating from a single trading account that was active for at least 15 months as of January, a month before the start of the US-Israel war against Iran. The report said “the vast sums show how Binance has been used as a financial artery for the IRGC,” using the acronym for Iran’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

The transactions, comprising both deposits and withdrawals, went through despite repeated red flags from Binance’s internal investigators, and led to an estimated $425 million being funneled into the Iranian military, the Journal said, citing Binance documents, law enforcement officials and other sources familiar with the activity.

According to the report, the transactions were carried out through a network of accounts operated from the same devices by Zanjani and associates, including his sister, romantic partner and a director of one of Zanjani’s companies.

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. But Zanjani remains........

© The Times of Israel