Iranian Businessman's Cryptocurrency Network Funneled Hundreds of Millions to Revolutionary Guard

An investigation has uncovered an elaborate scheme in which prominent Iranian businessman Babak Zanjani, with documented connections to Tehran's leadership, established a network leveraging cryptocurrency transactions to move substantial sums while circumventing international sanctions restrictions.

The operation channeled financial transactions totaling more than $850 million across a two-year span concluding in December, primarily through a single Binance account. Associates of Zanjani—including his sister, a romantic partner, and his company's chief executive—maintained separate accounts that fed into this broader network structure.

Internal compliance documentation from Binance revealed that all accounts within this network were accessed from identical devices, a pattern investigators at the platform identified as indicative of a coordinated scheme designed to evade American sanctions targeting Iran.

Despite multiple internal alerts raised within the company, the primary account at the center of the operation remained functional for approximately 15 months, continuing transactions through January, according to the investigation.

The transfers constitute a portion of the billions of dollars that flowed through Binance to Iranian Revolutionary Guard-connected networks during the preceding two years, drawing on compliance records maintained by Binance, blockchain analysis, and intelligence from international law enforcement authorities and cryptocurrency specialists.

Experts monitoring illicit financial flows estimate that roughly $425 million of Zanjani's transactions were redirected specifically toward financing Iranian military operations, with particular emphasis on supporting the Revolutionary Guard.

The investigation documented additional Iran-linked transfers via Binance, including $107 million moved by Iran's Central Bank the previous year utilizing digital currencies, alongside direct transactions worth approximately $260 million between Binance accounts and digital wallets belonging to sanctioned Iranian organizations.

The probe additionally identified an unnamed digital wallet receiving Binance transfers that subsequently distributed approximately $218 million to an Iranian state financing mechanism in 2023, a pattern corroborated through blockchain verification.

These findings supplement approximately $1.7 billion in additional transactions that Binance's internal investigators previously connected to Iranian financing infrastructure.