U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Friday that Iran’s regime “continues to pay a steep economic price for its reckless behavior,” pointing to the Iranian rial’s collapse to another record low and a sharp rise in inflation, as the department rolled out a fresh round of sanctions targeting the sprawling financial network of Iranian billionaire Babak Zanjani.
Bessent’s statement came in a post on X on July 24, 2026, responding directly to an announcement from the official U.S. Treasury account. The full text of Bessent’s post reads: “The Iranian regime continues to pay a steep economic price for its reckless behavior, with the rial plunging to another record low and inflation up massively. Under @POTUS’s leadership, Treasury will continue cutting off economic access for corrupt Iranian regime elites, along with their financiers and facilitators.”
His comment followed an announcement one minute earlier from the U.S. Treasury’s official account, which read: “Today, Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control designated four individuals and nine entities that form key components of Babak Zanjani[‘]s broader Iranian sanctions evasion network. Zanjani has leveraged a diverse portfolio to obscure ownership, launder revenue, and expand his capacity to move funds covertly through Iran and offshore.”
The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, formalized the action in a same-day press release, stating that the newly designated individuals and entities “form key components” of Zanjani’s broader sanctions evasion network. According to the release, Zanjani “has leveraged a diverse portfolio—including financial services, gold and precious gem production, digital asset trading, and major transportation and infrastructure projects—to obscure ownership, launder revenue, and expand his capacity to move funds covertly through Iran and offshore.”
Bessent’s remarks were reiterated verbatim in the department’s press release, which quoted him directly: “The Iranian regime continues to pay a steep economic price for its reckless behavior, with the rial plunging to another record low and inflation up massively. Under President Trump’s leadership, Treasury will continue cutting off economic access for corrupt Iranian regime elites, along with their financiers and facilitators.”
Friday’s designations target what Treasury described as Zanjani’s Iran-based “Dot One” conglomerate along with a series of companies based outside Iran that have supported his two flagship digital asset exchanges, Zedcex Exchange Limited and Zedxion Exchange Limited, as well as executives tied to those firms. OFAC first designated Zanjani and the two exchanges on January 30, 2026.
Zanjani was sentenced to death in Iran in 2016 after being convicted of embezzling billions of dollars from the state-run National Iranian Oil Company, a sentence that was later commuted in 2024. Treasury said that by 2025 he had publicly re-emerged as a backer of regime-linked economic projects, building out infrastructure and transportation ventures alongside a network of digital asset platforms that the department says were used in part to launder money for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which the U.S. has designated a terrorist organization.
Among the entities named Friday is Dot One Value Creation Group, the Tehran-based holding company for Zanjani’s broader conglomerate, which Treasury said he has led as chief executive since as early as 2024. Also designated was DotOne Gold Company, described as Zanjani’s gold bar minting, production and custody operation, which Treasury said is central to a gold-backed digital token that moved through Zedcex’s infrastructure in early 2025. Four additional Dot One subsidiaries covering rail, clearing house, airline and ride-sharing operations were designated as well.
The action further targeted the international support network behind Zedcex and Zedxion, which Treasury says processed funds on behalf of wallets linked to the IRGC. That includes an Istanbul-based financial technology firm integrated into Zedxion’s trading platform and its chairperson, and a Dubai-based firm that acted on Zedcex’s behalf along with its manager. Treasury also designated a Dubai-based diamond dealer run by Zanjani’s sister, which it said promoted Zedxion’s NFT marketplace and conducted transactions with Zedcex and Zedxion wallets, as well as Zanjani’s sister herself and his significant other, who Treasury said registered websites for his companies.
Under the sanctions, all property and interests in property of the designated individuals and entities that are in the United States or under the control of U.S. persons are blocked and must be reported to OFAC. Any companies owned 50 percent or more, in aggregate, by a blocked person are also automatically blocked, and U.S. persons are generally barred from any transactions involving the designated parties.
The rial’s slide referenced in Bessent’s post has been steep and sustained through the summer. Iran’s currency crossed 1.9 million to the dollar in mid-July on the open market and has continued trading near record-low levels since, a collapse the International Monetary Fund has tied to inflation projected near 69 percent for 2026 alongside a contracting economy. Analysts have attributed the plunge to a combination of long-running sanctions, disruption to Iran’s energy and trade sectors, damage from recent military conflict, and years of fiscal mismanagement by Tehran.
Friday’s action was not an isolated move. Treasury’s press release noted it followed the department’s initial designation of Zanjani, Zedcex and Zedxion on January 30, 2026, part of a broader pattern of OFAC actions this year aimed at Iranian regime finances. The Treasury Department’s news feed shows the Zanjani action was announced the same day as a joint statement on EU-U.S. financial regulatory cooperation and just one day after a separate release detailing the disruption of financial networks tied to the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas, underscoring the pace of the department’s sanctions activity in recent days.
Treasury said the goal of its sanctions authority is not simply punitive. The department noted that individuals or entities placed on OFAC’s Specially Designated Nationals List can petition for removal, and that “the ultimate goal of sanctions is not to punish, but to bring about a positive change in behavior.” Financial institutions and individuals who report sanctions violations may also be eligible for awards through the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network’s whistleblower program if their tips lead to penalties exceeding $1 million.
Bessent has repeatedly framed Treasury’s Iran-related actions as central to the Trump administration’s broader pressure campaign against Tehran, tying financial sanctions directly to the country’s currency collapse and economic strain. Friday’s post continued that pattern, casting the Zanjani network’s dismantlement as part of a sustained effort to choke off resources to “corrupt Iranian regime elites” and the financiers who help them move money around U.S. and international sanctions.