As the United States and Iran edge closer to a possible framework agreement to end months of escalating conflict, attention is shifting beyond missiles, ceasefires and nuclear diplomacy to a far more opaque battlefield: the financial networks that kept Iran’s military machine running through sanctions, war and economic isolation.
At the centre of that shadow system sits a familiar name in Tehran’s sanctions-busting world, Babak Zanjani, the flamboyant Iranian businessman once accused by Washington of helping the regime move billions of dollars through covert oil and banking operations. According to investigations by both the Wall Street Journal and Reuters, Zanjani’s network allegedly used cryptocurrency exchanges, offshore firms and digital payment chains to funnel vast sums tied to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), even as the Trump administration publicly intensified pressure on Tehran.
