Babak Zanjani Iranian billionaire sentenced to death

Babak Zanjani, sentenced to death in Iran for corruption, was an extraordinary person who went from trading sheepskins in the 1980s to becoming a key player in selling Iran's oil in the years when cripplinginternational sanctions were imposed over the country's nuclear programme.

He called himself a hero, an economic soldier of the Islamic revolution who came to his country's rescue when the government could not sell oil or, even if they did, no international banks would agree to transfer Iran's money due to the sanctions.

He established one of the biggest enterprises in Iran's recent history, a holding that was involved in everything from transport to construction, from owning football clubs to selling oil, banking both inside Iran and abroad.

At one stage he valued himself at around $13.5bn (£9.5bn), an extraordinary figure for a country where most of the economy is owned by the state and the private sector is restricted.