Iranian businessman Babak Zanjani, a tycoon once sentenced to death for corruption before receiving clemency, said that $2.3 billion from a Malaysian bank account tied to him was seized to help pay an international arbitration award against Iran’s National Oil Company (NIOC).
Zanjani wrote on the social platform X that the UAE-based Crescent Petroleum had “not only seized Iran’s Oil Ministry building in London worth $125 million, but also confiscated $2.3 billion belonging to the National Iranian Oil Company held in Malaysia’s First Islamic Investment Bank.”
He added that the funds had been converted to euros and were awaiting transfer “to a Singapore bank,” while the company’s total claim against NIOC had reached $2.9 billion plus $13 million in accrued penalties.
According to Iranian media, the Kuala Lumpur High Court implemented a 2021 ruling by The Hague’s arbitration tribunal, ordering Iran to compensate Crescent over a failed 2001 gas supply contract for the offshore Salman field. The enforcement follows similar seizures of NIOC properties in London and Rotterdam.
On Monday, Iran’s state media also confirmed that a UK appeals court had upheld the confiscation of the NIOC House, a historic £100 million property near the British Parliament, ruling that it could be used to help satisfy Crescent’s arbitration award.
The judgment found that Iran’s attempt to transfer ownership of the building to another state entity was intended to evade debt recovery.
The Crescent case -- one of Iran’s longest-running energy disputes -- stems from a 25-year gas export contract. Iran withdrew from the deal in 2010, alleging unfavorable terms, prompting years of arbitration and legal challenges.
Once worth an estimated $13.5 billion, Zanjani made his fortune helping Iran bypass Western sanctions during the presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad through complex oil trading networks.
Zanjani, convicted in 2016 of embezzling $1.9 billion in oil revenues, had his death sentence commuted to 20 years after agreeing to help recover state funds abroad. Released last year, he has since rejoined Iran’s oil sector under government oversight, according to local media.
