Operation Economic Outcast Disrupts Digital Asset Exchange Enabling the Iranian Regime
WASHINGTON—Today, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated BitBank, a priority digital assets venture controlled by OFAC-designated Iranian financier Babak Zanjani (Zanjani), as part of Operation Economic Outcast, the Trump Administration’s whole-of-government economic campaign against the Islamic Republic of Iran and its enablers. Today’s designations also include BitBank’s developer, Pishtaz Simorgh Electronic Trade Company (Pishtaz Simorgh) and three associates of Zanjani: Hossein Ali Zaker Hossein,Mohammad Mahdi Zaker Hossein, and Seyed Adel Heidari. The entities and individuals designated today are key components of the Iranian regime’s digital assets-based sanctions evasion infrastructure.
“Today’s designations of Iranian digital asset infrastructure make perfectly clear that efforts to finance the Iranian regime using cryptocurrencies are not beyond OFAC’s reach,” said Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent. “If you support the Iranian regime, the Department of the Treasury will sanction you.”
Since June of this year, OFAC-designated Hormuz Safe Marine Services Authority has used BitBank to transfer payments it received to the Iranian regime. The action directly strikes at the architecture Zanjani built to launder funds and transfer hundreds of millions of dollars in Bitcoin to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, including digital asset platforms and their supporting developers.
Today’s designations are taken pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13902, which targets Iran’s digital asset sector—a determination made as part of Economic D-Day—as well as many other sectors of the Iranian economy. The expanded use of this authority grants the Department of the Treasury significant abilities to pursue and disrupt the Iranian regime’s efforts to evade sanctions through digital assets. The Department of the Treasury will continue to not only target the Iranian digital asset ecosystem, but also international entities and actors which help facilitate it. For more information on sanctions risk associated with Iranian digital asset exchanges, please see FAQ 1250 and FAQ 1257.
OPERATION ECONOMIC OUTCAST IS ISOLATING THE IRANIAN REGIME
Announced by Secretary Bessent on August 24, 2026 and dubbed “Economic D-Day,” Operation Economic Outcast is severing the remaining economic lifelines that sustain the Iranian regime. Treasury has mapped the networks, facilitators, and financial channels that Iran uses to smuggle oil, evade sanctions, and fund terror. Working with partners across the U.S. government, the European Union, United Kingdom, Gulf partners, and others, Treasury is targeting any source of the regime’s illicit revenue.
Treasury warned that any entity facilitating money laundering or sanctions evasion on behalf of Iran risks being cut off from the U.S. financial system. Treasury also emphasized the secondary sanctions exposure for those who continue doing business with the Iranian regime and will accelerate the pace of U.S. enforcement. More information on Operation Economic Outcast is available here.
BITBANK: A BABAK ZANJANI CRYPTOCURRENCY EXCHANGE
On January 30, 2026 and July 24, 2026, OFAC designated multiple Zanjani-linked digital assets entities and facilitators. After being sentenced to death in Iran in 2016 for embezzling millions from the OFAC-designated National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), Zanjani’s sentence was commuted in 2024. By 2025, he had publicly re-emerged as a backer of regime-linked economic projects. Alongside high‑profile infrastructure and transportation ventures, Zanjani built a network of digital asset companies used in part to launder money for the IRGC. Through this combined infrastructure, Zanjani’s enterprises have served as both public‑facing commercial ventures and covert financial platforms enabling sanctions evasion and support to Iranian state‑linked entities.
BitBank is an Iranian digital assets exchange. Since at least 2024, Zanjani has advertised BitBank’s services on his social media accounts, and it has been listed as a partner by multiple other companies within Zanjani’s sanctions evasion network. Between June and July of this year, Zanjani utilized BitBank to facilitate the transfer of hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of Bitcoin to the IRGC. The developer of BitBank’s digital assets software is Pishtaz Simorgh Electronic Trade Company (Pishtaz Simorgh), a subsidiary of OFAC-designated Dot One Value Creation Group (Dot One). Pishtaz Simorgh has built a brand around BitBank. OFAC is designating BitBank and Pishtaz Simorgh pursuant to E.O. 13902 for operating in the digital asset sector of the Iranian economy.
Hossein Ali Zaker Hossein, Mohammad Mahdi Zaker Hossein, and Seyed Adel Heidari are all executives of Zanjani’s Dot One and key lieutenants for Zanjani’s digital assets sanctions evasion network. Hossein Ali Zaker Hossein has been involved in the majority of Zanjani’s sanctions evasion activity, including the export of Iranian oil and other digital asset transfers. Additionally, Hossein Ali Zaker Hossein has brokered digital asset transactions which ultimately went to the IRGC. Mohammad Mahdi Zaker Hossein is a Dot One manager and representative and is the CEO of Pishtaz Simorgh. Seyed Adel Heidari is the Vice Chairman of Dot One’s board of directors.
OFAC is designating Hossein Ali Zaker Hossein pursuant to E.O. 13902 for having acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, Zanjani. Additionally, OFAC is designating Mohammad Mahdi Zaker Hossein pursuant to E.O. 13902 for having acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, Pishtaz Simorgh, and Seyed Adel Heidari pursuant to E.O. 13902 for having acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, Dot One.
SANCTIONS IMPLICATIONS
As a result of today’s action, all property and interests in property of the designated or blocked persons described above that are in the United States or in the possession or control of U.S. persons are blocked and must be reported to OFAC. In addition, any entities that are owned, directly or indirectly, individually or in the aggregate, 50 percent or more by one or more blocked persons are also blocked. Unless authorized by a general or specific license issued by OFAC, or exempt, OFAC’s regulations generally prohibit all transactions by U.S. persons or within (or transiting) the United States that involve any property or interests in property of designated or otherwise blocked persons.
Violations of U.S. sanctions may result in the imposition of civil or criminal penalties on U.S. and foreign persons. OFAC may impose civil penalties for sanctions violations on a strict liability basis. OFAC’s Economic Sanctions Enforcement Guidelines provide more information regarding OFAC’s enforcement of U.S. economic sanctions. In addition, financial institutions and other persons may risk exposure to sanctions for engaging in certain transactions or activities involving designated or otherwise blocked persons. The prohibitions include the making of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services by, to, or for the benefit of any designated or blocked person, or the receipt of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services from any such person. Non-U.S. persons are also prohibited from causing or conspiring to cause U.S. persons to wittingly or unwittingly violate U.S. sanctions, as well as engaging in conduct that evades U.S. sanctions. Individuals located in the U.S. or abroad who provide information about sanctions violations to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network’s whistleblower incentive program may be eligible for awards if the information they provide leads to a successful enforcement action that results in monetary penalties exceeding $1,000,000.
The power and integrity of OFAC sanctions derive not only from OFAC’s ability to designate and add persons to the SDN List, but also from its willingness to remove persons from the SDN List consistent with the law. The ultimate goal of sanctions is not to punish, but to bring about a positive change in behavior. For information concerning the process for seeking removal from an OFAC list, including the SDN List, please refer to OFAC’s Frequently Asked Question 897 here,and to submit a request for removal, click here.
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