High-ranking officials' children? Shadow banking? The truth about the Iranian stock exchange Nobitex.

Authors: Gavin Finch, Reuters London Investigative Correspondent; Allison Martell, Reuters Toronto Investigative Correspondent; Denise Ajiri, Reuters New York Investigative and Data Correspondent; James Pearson, Reuters London Investigative Correspondent; Translated by: Eric, Foresight News

The sons of the close family of Iran's new Supreme Leader control the country's largest cryptocurrency exchange, transforming it from a startup into a gateway to the global economy, serving both blacklisted state institutions and ordinary citizens.

According to a Reuters investigation, since Nobitex was founded by two brothers using a family alias, the exchange has processed tens to hundreds of millions of dollars in transactions related to sanctioned groups, including the Central Bank of Iran and the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

These two are members of the Kharrazi family, one of the most influential families in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Business registration records show that the two brothers used a surname rarely used by family members when the exchange was founded. The company quickly integrated into the Iranian economic system. Nobitex claims to have 11 million users, more than 10% of Iran's total population. Excluded from the international banking system, coupled with the sharp devaluation of the rial and hyperinflation, ordinary Iranians could only buy and hold cryptocurrencies through this exchange. This is a screenshot of the Nobitex website homepage on March 28, a month after the outbreak of war. Despite government-imposed internet censorship during the war, the company continued to operate. Despite facing comprehensive Western economic sanctions, the exchange has not yet been included on the sanctions list by the United States and its allies. Reuters was unable to find any indication that members of the Kharrazi family had been sanctioned by Western governments, nor could it determine why Nobitex had escaped the kind of punishment suffered by other major Iranian economic entities. Reuters' revelation of the elite background of Nobitex's founders comes at a critical juncture for Iran, particularly the Revolutionary Guard. Since the death of Supreme Leader Khamenei in an airstrike in February at the outset of the US-Israel war against Iran, the Revolutionary Guard has further consolidated its control over Iran's economic and security institutions. The two brothers are third-generation members of the Kharrazi family, at the heart of Iranian rule. Members of the Kharrazi family have served as advisors to the Supreme Leader and occupy key political, diplomatic, and religious positions. The family is related by marriage to three of the Supreme Leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran: Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the revolution; the late Khamenei; and Khamenei's son, Mojtaba. The brothers Ali Kharrazi and Mohammad Kharrazi (using the family name Aghamir) built Nobitex into the country's dominant cryptocurrency exchange. It is estimated that the exchange handles approximately 70% of cryptocurrency transactions in Iran. While it is not uncommon for Iranians to use aliases, the two brothers appear to be the only members of their immediate family who deliberately distance themselves from their illustrious lineage. A Reuters investigation found that Nobitex acts as both a bridge connecting the global cryptocurrency market and a core node in a parallel financial system used to transfer funds outside of Western sanctions. Analysis of on-chain data by cryptocurrency analytics firm Crystal Intelligence and interviews with four private financial investigators suggest that the Iranian government used the exchange to channel funds to allies through channels outside the traditional banking system. Reuters also interviewed nine Iranians who had worked or collaborated with Nobitex, six of whom said they were aware that funds from Western-sanctioned countries had flowed through the exchange. In an emailed statement to Reuters, Nobitex denied any direct ties to the government or assistance to the state, stating that any illicit funds flowing through the exchange were neither approved nor known by management. The company stated that the two brothers did not change their identities or use alternative identities. The company also stated that any transactions involving state entities were far less than the estimates provided to Reuters by investigators. Nobitex stated: "Nobitex is a private, independent company. It has never been a government subsidiary and has never had any relationship, arrangement, agreement, or contract with the Central Bank of Iran, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or any other government agency." The Iranian government did not respond to requests for comment through its UN missions in New York and Geneva. A Trump administration official, responding to Reuters' questions about the details of the investigation, wrote: "Under President Trump's strong leadership, the United States is aggressively pursuing economic measures, employing all available tools to maintain maximum pressure on Iran and systematically undermine Tehran's ability to generate, transfer, and repatriate funds." The official did not mention Nobitex. According to three blockchain analytics firms that track Nobitex and other exchanges, Nobitex continued to process transactions throughout the war, even during the government's nationwide internet blockade and widespread blackouts in Tehran. According to Crystal Intelligence, Nobitex processed over $100 million in transactions during this period, approximately 20% of its normal business volume. The company has been investigating the flow of cryptocurrency funds into Iran for over four years. Crystal Intelligence Chief Intelligence Officer Nick Smart stated, "The problem with Nobitex is that because a large amount of activity on the platform belongs to ordinary Iranian citizens, it is difficult to distinguish between the regime and the people using the platform." U.S. Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren stated that the revelations about Nobitex are worrying. In a statement to Reuters, Senator Warren, a senior Democratic member of the Senate Banking Committee, said: "This latest report is a warning sign: adversaries are using digital assets as an alternative to the U.S.-led global financial system. Because so many services in the crypto ecosystem lack basic controls to prevent money laundering and circumvent sanctions, transferring billions of dollars becomes incredibly easy." The initial board of Nobitex consisted of brothers Ali and Mohammad, along with Amir Hosein Rad. All three graduated from Sharif University of Technology in Tehran, an elite institution comparable to MIT. Rad is not related to the brothers; he and Ali are the company's public representatives. Rad serves as CEO, while Mohammad is a blockchain technology expert. In an interview for a Nobitex company brochure, the brothers used... The family name is Aghamir. Mohammad describes his brother as "my life advisor, someone I always consult when making decisions." According to government and bank records reviewed by Reuters, Ali was born in 1986, and Mohammad was born in 1992. In the same promotional brochure, Ali described his affection for the company, stating that the founder's care for Nobitex was like "that of his own child," and he believed the company received special blessings: "In any situation, I always feel some kind of supernatural help." This is a screenshot from the Nobitex website, showing Seyed Mohammad Ali Aghamir Mohammad Ali from the Kharrazi family, known as Ali, one of Nobitex's public figures. He is explaining how to secure cryptocurrency. According to seven former employees and industry insiders interviewed by Reuters, the two brothers concealed their surname, Kharrazi, even from their closest relatives within the company. Some of these sources said they had known the brothers since their university days. They had never used the surname Kharrazi then, nor now. Reuters could not determine why the brothers chose to continue concealing their origins. Nobitex did not respond to questions about the brothers' relationship to the Kharrazi family, nor did it mention the family name in its responses. However, a short email signed by the elder brother, Ali, came from an email address containing the surname Kharrazi. Nobitex stated, "They come from the Aghamir Mohammad Ali family and use the name in their daily lives." Of the nine former employees and industry insiders interviewed by Reuters, only one learned of their family relationship directly from the brothers. Another said he discovered it through his own investigation. The most surprised was a former colleague who had known Mohammad for many years; he was shocked when Reuters revealed the brothers' connection to the Kharrazi family. Seyed Mohammad Aghamir Mohammad Ali, the younger brother from the Kharrazi family, appeared in Nobitex's 2021 annual report. He is known as Mohammad and is a blockchain expert at the company. Another former Nobitex employee stated, "My criticism of the regime was quite open, as were my colleagues'." Upon discovering the brothers' surnames, he said, "I felt afraid; I had made many hate statements against the regime and religion." According to Iranian news reports, their grandfather was a religious scholar and Ayatollah (a title of respect for a senior Shiite cleric) who taught Iran's new Supreme Leader, Khamenei. This man later joined the Assembly of Experts, responsible for selecting Iran's Supreme Leader. Mojtaba succeeded his father, Khamenei, after his assassination.

Mehdi Kharrazi on the right of the photo is a businessman. His son, Mohsen (on the left of the photo), is a member of the Iranian Council of Experts. Mohsen Kharrazi is the grandfather of the founder of Nobitex. The caption reads: "Hajj Seyed Mehdi Kharrazi's Secret to Success: Listening to the Advice of His Elders!"

One of their great-uncles served as Foreign Minister and advisor to successive Supreme Leaders, including Mojtaba.

Their father, Ayatollah Bagher Kharrazi, is the founder of Hezbollah, a political and religious organization unrelated to the more well-known Iranian proxy groups in Lebanon.

Bagher, who ran in the 2013 presidential election, wrote on his personal website that he was also involved in the personnel deployment of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The two brothers' aunt married the brother of the new Supreme Leader. A screenshot of Bagher Kharrazi's personal website, taken on August 13, 2016, lists his achievements. The father of the Nobitex founder also ran for Iranian president in 2013. Journalist Fariborz Kalantari stated that there are "inner circles and outer circles" within Iran's theocracy. He was sentenced to imprisonment and 74 lashes in 2021 for reporting on corruption in Iran and now resides abroad. Speaking of the Kharrazi family, he said, "These people are members of Khamenei's inner circle." Kalantari stated that others, especially those associated with the revolution, had developed the habit of using aliases as early as 1979, when many anti-Shah activists were imprisoned alongside anti-monarchy guerrillas. Nobitex stated in a statement that the two brothers "and their father never held any government or military position." The statement did not mention their father's name. Despite their illustrious background, according to four people who knew them, the two brothers lived frugally during their student and early entrepreneurial years. One of them said that when Mohammad bought his first car, he chose a SAIPA Pride, one of the cheapest models in Iran. The elder brother, Ali, has the full name Seyed Mohammad Ali Aghamir Mohammad Ali, and the younger brother, Mohammad, has the full name Seyed Mohammad Aghamir Mohammad Ali. Friends have teased them about their long and unusual names, but according to someone who knows them outside of work, the brothers have never offered an explanation. Rumors about their identities began circulating in 2024 when a Chinese blog reported that the brothers' father was a major shareholder in the cryptocurrency exchange through his son, Mohammad (who uses the surname Aghamir). When Seyed Mohammad Ali Aghamir Mohammad Ali registered the Nobitex domain in 2017, he used an email address containing the surname Kharrazi. This address was also used to register a website for a religious charity chaired by their father. Corporate filings show that the elder brother, Ali, is listed as the vice-chairman of the charity. The message received by Reuters from Ali was also sent through this email address. Public registrations of the same charity show that the founder's father used two different surnames under the same national identity number. In most records, he used Kharrazi. But in at least one record from 2011, he used Aghamir, the same surname used by his sons who later founded Nobitex. Reuters traced the connection between Nobitex and the Kharrazi family through Iranian corporate, government, and banking records. Artificial intelligence tools were used to extract the names and identity numbers of Nobitex board members and map their relationships. A leaked database, cross-checked with national identity numbers, confirmed the father-son relationship of these three individuals. Other family members, including the brothers' aunt, uncle, and cousins, all used the surname Kharrazi in public. The brothers' grandfather also occasionally used the name Aghamir. The Vague "Address" Nobitex has publicly stated its goal is to allow Iranians to invest in cryptocurrencies "under the shadow of sanctions," and has advised clients on how best to avoid their transactions being monitored or intercepted by Western governments. Nobitex has done business with some of the giants in the global cryptocurrency space. Reuters reported in 2022 that Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, transferred $7.8 billion to Nobitex to circumvent US sanctions against Iran. Binance founder Changpeng Zhao was imprisoned in 2024 for violating US anti-money laundering laws and was pardoned by President Trump in 2025. Binance has not responded to questions about how it prevents sanctioned Iranian entities from accessing the exchange. To cover its tracks, Nobitex changes the wallet addresses it uses for fund transfers. According to the young Kharrazi brothers in Nobitex's 2021 annual report, due to "increasing restrictions related to international sanctions," the company also developed cryptographic tools to further obfuscate the connections between related wallets. Furthermore, Nobitex advised clients to use multiple wallet addresses for transactions to increase the difficulty for Western investigators to track them. While Nobitex's founders possessed elite connections, former employees say that from the beginning, the company had to navigate the competing demands of various powerful state institutions in Iran. The Central Bank of Iran has repeatedly banned exchanges, including Nobitex, from accessing the domestic banking system. According to three former employees, shortly after Nobitex opened in 2018, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps visited the company's Tehran offices and questioned then-CEO Rad. Two of them stated that a few years later, the Revolutionary Guard raided again, arrested Rad, confiscated employee laptops, and sealed off the offices. Two employees stated that there is currently no indication that Rad has been prosecuted. This is a screenshot of Amir Hosein Rad, one of the co-founders of Nobitex, from a video released on June 21, 2025. He was questioned multiple times by the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Various explanations circulate in the office regarding the reasons for the Revolutionary Guard's repeated visits. One person claimed it was retaliation for Nobitex's refusal to handle Revolutionary Guard funds related to sanctioned oil sales. Two others claimed that a jealous competitor falsely accused Nobitex of defrauding users. In a December 2025 interview with an Iranian podcast host, Rad stated that his 2021 arrest involved a misunderstanding regarding Nobitex's relationship with another company with questionable business practices. Rad did not name the company, describing the arrest as one of the side effects of starting a business in Iran: "I think very few Iranian entrepreneurs haven't experienced something like this." Six former employees interviewed by Reuters said they knew Nobitex was used by the Iranian government and its security agencies to circumvent stringent Western financial sanctions. Nobitex denies having any agreements with any government agencies, and none of the employees interviewed by Reuters were aware of any such agreements. Nobitex stated, "We face numerous operational restrictions from the Iranian government, including raids on offices, domain name blocking, and the closure of bank gateways. These actions completely contradict our claims of receiving any form of government support." A screenshot from Nobitex's official Twitter account shows that the Iranian Minister of Communications and Information Technology visited Nobitex in 2018. The company was founded that year. Despite the pressure, Nobitex continues to thrive, and the Kharrazi brothers' wealth has grown accordingly. According to five former employees, the company moved to a luxurious new office in 2021, complete with a lounge area where employees could play video games, watch movies, or enjoy panoramic views of the Alborz Mountains. Their descriptions align with photos the company posted on LinkedIn. Female employees were not required to wear headscarves, and the office remained open even on religious holidays. A family address linked to Mohammad's national identity number is located in one of Tehran's wealthiest neighborhoods. As of the end of 2022, the exchange stated it had 4.3 million users and 268 employees. Sanctions excluding Iranians from the global financial system have ironically boosted Nobitex's appeal to its Iranian clients. Essentially, Iranians cannot legally open accounts on exchanges like Binance, but they can open accounts on Nobitex, which allows them access to a globalized cryptocurrency market that is subject to incomplete international regulation. In 2022, a young woman named Mahsa Amini died in police custody after being accused of violating headscarf laws. This sparked nationwide protests, and the company atmosphere changed. A former employee stated, "The building's security and ethics police started checking female employees' headscarves and threatened to shut down offices." According to two former employees, the office dress code became even stricter afterward. A person who frequently visited Nobitex offices and knew the founders said, "Management became much stricter about headscarves and security. Before that, the company looked like a tech startup." According to three former employees, concerns about the employer's relationship with the government deepened after a company associated with Mohammad Bagher Nahvi, a major Nobitex investor, was sanctioned by the United States for supplying drones to Russia. In September 2022, the U.S. Treasury Department stated that Safiran Airport Services was responsible for coordinating "flights between Iran and Russia, including those related to the transport of Iranian drones, personnel, and related equipment." Safiran is a privately held company, and its vice chairman, Nahvi, was the former chairman of Nobitex and one of the exchange's earliest and largest investors. In a 2022 promotional brochure, Ali Kharrazi described Nahvi as an enthusiastic investor who was "actively involved from the very first meeting." Nahvi did not respond to Reuters' request for comment regarding his role at Nobitex. In 2025, a hacking group called Predatory Sparrow attacked Nobitex, transferring approximately $90 million worth of cryptocurrency to inaccessible wallets with names containing blasphemous anti-Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps references. The company and its shareholders (including the two brothers) directly compensated customers whose funds were stolen, demonstrating Nobitex's considerable financial strength. According to a former senior U.S. Treasury official who participated in formulating U.S. sanctions policy against Iran, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' involvement in every significant aspect of the Iranian economy inevitably generates strong interest in economically vital companies like Nobitex. Miad Maleki, who worked at the U.S. Treasury Department from 2017 to 2025 as deputy director of the Office of Foreign Assets Control, stated, "Once a company starts making a profit, you see the government intervene and take a share. In Iran, you can't own a successful company without being controlled by the regime." He is now a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Evidence of how Nobitex infiltrated Iran's sanctions circumvention network has surfaced through an unexpected channel: Babak Zanjani, an Iranian billionaire convicted of fraud. Zanjani has long been a key figure in Iran's sanctions circumvention network. He was sentenced to death by Iranian authorities in 2016 for embezzlement, a sentence later commuted in 2024. However, Zanjani remains embroiled in a public dispute with the Central Bank of Iran, which accuses him of failing to return billions of dollars that were misappropriated. In a scathing attack on the Central Bank in December 2024, Zanjani published his wallet address on social media, allowing outside cryptocurrency analysts to uncover a complex sanctions circumvention scheme in which Nobitex was at its core. Iranian billionaire Babak Zanjani has been convicted of fraud after posting criticisms of the Central Bank of Iran on social media. This comes after leaked documents revealing cryptocurrency wallet information led analysts to uncover a sanctions circumvention scheme using Nobitex as a key channel. According to Smart of Crystal Intelligence and another cryptocurrency analyst, part of the scheme involved transferring at least $20 million in sanctioned central bank funds to wallet addresses controlled by Nobitex. Zanjani did not respond to requests for comment. According to blockchain analytics firm Elliptic, these transactions are just one part of a larger wallet network controlled by the Central Bank of Iran, which purchased over $500 million worth of cryptocurrency between November 2024 and June 2025. Elliptic states that approximately $347 million of this was transferred to Nobitex by the US-sanctioned Central Bank of Iran in the first half of 2025. Transferring funds through Nobitex, after a series of transactions, can obscure the origin of the funds. Nobitex states that any allegedly illicit funds flowing through the exchange represent only a "very small percentage of total trading volume" and occurred without the company's knowledge. The company stated, "Nobitex takes a firm stance on any suspicious or irregular activity, including permanently closing accounts." The statement did not define "irregular activity." Babak Zanjani shared a letter. This letter, dated April 30, 2025, was written by a bank manager to an official at the Central Bank of Iran, detailing a cryptocurrency transaction. The letter provided a wallet address that helped analysts uncover a sanctions circumvention scheme involving Nobitex. Estimates of the total amount of illicit transactions by Nobitex vary widely. These data primarily originate from wallet addresses identified and sanctioned by governments including Israel and the United States. Elliptic has identified approximately $366 million flowing through the exchange. Chainalysis gives a figure closer to $68 million; Crystal Intelligence estimates direct transfers from sanctioned wallets at $22 million. Even the highest estimates represent only 3% of the $11 billion in cryptocurrency transactions processed by Nobitex. All companies caution that the true figures are likely much higher. Among Iran's allies, at least two companies have discovered Nobitex's involvement in transactions linked to accounts connected to the Houthi rebels in Yemen. Houthi media outlets did not respond to requests for comment regarding its involvement in Nobitex transactions. Sanctions imposed by the US and Israeli governments have listed dozens of cryptocurrency wallets linked to the Central Bank of Iran and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Crystal Intelligence and other private investigators tracked how these wallets transferred funds through Nobitex and shared their findings and methodology with Reuters. Iranian sanctioned entities also use other methods to transfer funds, such as the informal Hawara money transfer system and a complex network of offshore banks. On April 28, the United States announced new sanctions targeting what it called Iran's "shadow banking system." Nobitex was not included in these sanctions. However, Nobitex's crucial role in Iran's financial system has been fully exposed during this year's war with Israel and the United States. Since February 28, most ordinary Iranians have been unable to access the internet due to the government's internet censorship to suppress dissent. However, Nobitex has continued to operate. Nobitex did not respond to questions about how it maintained internet access during the censorship period. Internet monitoring company Netblocks stated that during this period, only those on a "state-approved whitelist" (representing 1% to 2% of the total population) were able to access the internet as the state cracked down on satellite links and VPNs. Crystal Intelligence found that some members of this tiny elite group withdrew at least $54 million from the exchange during the war, most of which went to overseas brokers who exchanged cryptocurrency for cash with minimal inquiry. On April 1, Nobitex released a message intended to reassure customers, stating that "despite the instability of infrastructure and service systems," customer funds were safe and withdrawable. The statement did not directly mention the war. However, the conflict that day had a direct impact on the Kharrazi brothers: an airstrike targeted the apartment of their great-uncle Kamal, a former foreign minister and advisor to the current Supreme Leader and his assassinated father. According to state news reports, his wife died at the scene, while Kamal succumbed to his injuries several days later. Iran's new Supreme Leader, who lost his wife and father in an airstrike on the first day of the war, expressed his condolences to the Kharrazi family in state media and prayed for God's blessings upon the "distinguished Kharrazi family."