A court in Iran has sentenced billionaire businessman Babak Zanjani and two accomplices to death for embezzlement, the country's judiciary said on Sunday, in a case widely watched due to the tycoon's prominent role in helping the Iranian government evade oil sanctions during the rule of former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Iran's Islamic court convicted the defendants of "spreading corruption on earth," a capital offense, and ordered them to repay funds embezzled from, among others, state-run National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei said during a live television broadcast.