Two cryptocurrency exchanges registered in the United Kingdom and marketed as processing more than $1 billion a day were fronted by a purported executive who “doesn’t seem to exist” and was instead portrayed using stock footage, OCCRP reported. 

The news outlet said the firms, Zedcex and Zedxion, listed “Elizabeth Newman” as director and “person with significant control,” but reporters found no evidence of a real person matching the corporate filings and traced the promotional imagery to a stock-footage model used in marketing materials. 

U.S. authorities allege the “dormant” companies were active conduits for convicted embezzler Babak Zanjani and moved billions of dollars’ worth of digital assets on behalf of Iran’s regime, helping the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) bypass sanctions, OCCRP reported. 

Zedcex processed more than $94 billion in total transactions since its August 2022 registration, despite UK records showing the company reported doing no business, according to U.S. Treasury Department allegations outlined in the report. 

The news outlet also highlighted vulnerabilities in Britain’s corporate registry, noting that Companies House historically did not verify submitted identities, though new requirements under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 mandate identity verification for directors and controllers, with a deadline of May 19 for the two exchanges’ listed leadership. 

Other digital signs point back to Zanjani and his network, including corporate records showing shifts in directorship, document metadata listing “Babak” as an author of a revised exchange white paper, and evidence tying Zedcex/Zedxion operations to Solmaz Bani, identified as a former model and alleged partner, through domain registrations, email traces, and linked social-media imagery, according to the report. 

Read more at OCCRP