UK to Dissolve Crypto Exchange Accused of Aiding Iranian Sanctions Evasion

Britain’s company register, Companies House, has moved to dissolve Zedxion Exchange Ltd., a cryptocurrency platform accused of processing funds for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), according to a notice published on its website.

The action follows U.S. sanctions imposed in January by the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which designated Zedxion and a related entity, Zedcex, for their alleged role in enabling Iran to evade sanctions and for links to sanctioned financier Babak Zanjani.

Companies House said the shutdown was related to “information or a statement in an application for incorporation that is misleading, false or deceptive.” Investigators for the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project previously found that Zedxion’s listed director and person with significant control, Elizabeth Newman—described in filings as a Dominican national—was likely a fictitious identity. The company was also reported to have used a stock image to represent Newman in promotional materials.

Blockchain analytics firm TRM Labs found that Zedxion and its sister platform Zedcex processed roughly $1 billion in funds linked to the IRGC, accounting for about 56% of their total transaction volume. That share rose as high as 87% in 2024, when IRGC-linked flows reached approximately $619.1 million, before declining to about 48% in 2025 as other activity increased.

Zedxion Exchange Ltd. was incorporated in May 2021. In October that year, an individual named “Babak Morteza” was listed as both director and person with significant control. Companies House records show that the identifying details associated with that name match those of Babak Zanjani, an Iranian businessman long accused of sanctions evasion. Companies House filings indicate that “Babak Morteza” ceased to be listed as a person with significant control in August 2022. Newman was then appointed as a director the same month.

Zanjani was previously sanctioned by the U.S. and European Union in 2013 for laundering billions of dollars in oil revenue on behalf of Iranian state entities, including the IRGC. He was later convicted in Iran in 2016 for embezzlement of state oil funds and sentenced to death, though that sentence was commuted in 2024 after he repaid funds.

By 2025, Zanjani had re-emerged publicly with links to regime-aligned economic projects. He also runs DotOne Holding Group, a conglomerate spanning cryptocurrency, foreign exchange, logistics, aviation and telecommunications, all sectors that mirror infrastructure used in sanctions evasion networks. He has publicly advocated for blockchain-based financial systems in Iran, claiming involvement in efforts to transition parts of the country’s banking infrastructure onto such technology.

Iran has established a wide-ranging infrastructure leveraging crypto to bypass international sanctions, with blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis reporting that illicit cryptocurrency addresses linked to the IRGC received at least $154 billion in digital assets last year—a year-on-year increase of 162%.

In the wake of last month’s joint U.S.-Israeli airstrikes on Iran, Chainalysis reported some $10.3 million in cryptoasset outflows recorded between February 28 and March 2, though it was unable to determine how much of the activity was linked to state-aligned actors repositioning funds.

Iran Regime’s Crypto Activity Topped $3 Billion as Illicit Transactions Surged in 2025: Report

Companies House is beginning to exercise expanded powers under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 to query and remove suspect information from the register, including mandatory identity verification for directors and beneficial owners introduced in late 2025. It is part of a broader effort to prevent misuse of the UK corporate register.

Since March 2024, the registrar has been able to query and remove suspicious information and require companies to provide a registered email address. From November 2025, all directors and people with significant control have had to verify their identities, and companies must confirm they are formed for lawful purposes.