Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Thursday slapped sanctions on top Iranian officials behind the deadly protest crackdown as they rushed to move tens of millions of dollars out of the country.
“We are now seeing the rats fleeing the ship, because we can see tens of millions of dollars being wired out of the country, snuck out of the country, by the Iranian leadership,” Bessent told Newsmax on Wednesday.
“We are seeing it come into banks and financial institutions all over the world…whether it is through the typical banking system or through digital assets,” Bessent added.
In a press release on Thursday, the Treasury Department announced sanctions on several Iranian leaders, including Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Ali Larijani, who “is responsible for coordinating the response to the protests on behalf of the Supreme Leader of Iran and has publicly called for Iranian security forces to use force to repress peaceful protesters.”
Thousands of people have demonstrated in dozens of cities across Iran amid the near-collapse of the Iranian rial, falling wages, skyrocketing food prices and a severe water and energy crisis.
More than 2,500 people have been killed during the protests, according to an estimate from the Human Rights Activists News Agency on Wednesday.
Eighteen individuals and entities “who play critical roles in laundering the proceeds of Iranian petroleum and petrochemical sales to foreign markets” to finance the regime were also sanctioned, the Treasury Department said.
The sanctions freeze all assets and interests in assets belonging to the sanctioned individuals and entities that are in control of US individuals or entities. They also prohibit any transactions within the US that involve the sanctioned individuals or entities, according to the press release.
President Trump has seemingly backed off his threats to strike Iran again, telling reporters on Wednesday that he was told “on good authority” that the killing of protesters “is stopping, and there’s no plan for executions.”
His airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear program last June hit at the same time as an Iranian bank collapse that fueled economic distress in the country.
In November, Israel and the US threatened to strike again if Iran tried to start up its nuclear or missile programs – further weakening the nation’s image.
American and European sanctions directed some oil revenue away from Iran and the US has clamped down on money laundering from Iraq.
The value of the rial plummeted so fast that shop owners couldn’t set prices on their goods in time and importers lost money before they even listed their items for sale.
Hundreds of merchants – who rarely join in protests – have taken to the streets of Tehran as the economic crisis worsened.
Meanwhile, as Iranians struggled to afford food, the government started cutting public programs like bread subsidies and requirements that imported gasoline be sold at market prices.
It unsuccessfully tried to squash protests with a monthly cash subsidy of 10 million rials, or roughly $7, per person.
