Overview
- Treasury announced on Sept. 17 that the Office of Foreign Assets Control added BitBank, its software developer Pishtaz Simorgh and three associates linked to financier Babak Zanjani to the SDN list under Executive Order 13902.
- The agency alleges Zanjani used BitBank between June and July to move ‘‘hundreds of millions’’ of dollars in Bitcoin to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and that the Hormuz Safe Marine Services Authority routed tanker toll payments through the exchange starting in June.
- The designations are administrative blocking measures that freeze U.S. property, bar U.S. persons from dealings and expose some foreign parties to secondary sanctions and OFAC’s 50% ownership rule.
- Treasury did not publish wallet addresses, transaction hashes or a step-by-step on‑chain trail in its public materials, so the cited totals remain U.S. government allegations rather than independently verified transaction records.
- The action deepens Operation Economic Outcast and signals a shift from naming wallets to targeting companies, software and executives, which will raise immediate compliance pressure on global exchanges, banks and shipping firms that may have handled or routed related payments.