Iran hit with sanctions as officers transfer thousands and thousands out of the nation while protests rage: ‘Rats fleeing the ship’

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Thursday slapped sanctions on top Iranian officers behind the lethal protest crackdown as they rushed to maneuver tens of thousands and thousands of {dollars} out of the nation.

“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.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Thursday slapped sanctions on top Iranian officers behind the lethal protest crackdown. Newsmax

In a press release on Thursday, the Treasury Department announced sanctions on a number of 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 meals costs and a extreme water and vitality disaster.

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 people and entities “who play critical roles in laundering the proceeds of Iranian petroleum and petrochemical sales to foreign markets” to finance the regime have been also sanctioned, the Treasury Department said.

The sanctions freeze all property and pursuits in property belonging to the sanctioned people and entities that are in control of US people or entities. They also prohibit any transactions within the US that contain the sanctioned people 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.”

BREAKING: Scott Bessent reveals Treasury is monitoring tens of thousands and thousands of {dollars} fleeing Iran as its leaders know the end is close to and attempt to escape sanctions.

The Treasury Secretary called it “rats fleeing the ship.”

BESSENT: “And Rob the other factor as Treasury who carries out… pic.twitter.com/2ZNk6J1e2o

— Overton (@overton_news) January 15, 2026

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 nation.

In November, Israel and the US threatened to strike again if Iran tried to start up its nuclear or missile applications – additional weakening the nation’s picture.

American and European sanctions directed some oil income away from Iran and the US has clamped down on money laundering from Iraq.

Thousands of people have demonstrated in dozens of cities across Iran amid the near-collapse of the Iranian rial. AFP through Getty Images

The worth of the rial plummeted so fast that store house owners couldn’t set costs on their items in time and importers misplaced money before they even listed their objects for sale.

Hundreds of retailers – who not often take part protests – have taken to the streets of Tehran as the financial disaster worsened.

Meanwhile, as Iranians struggled to afford meals, the authorities began slicing public applications like bread subsidies and necessities that imported gasoline be bought at market costs.

It unsuccessfully tried to squash protests with a month-to-month money subsidy of 10 million rials, or roughly $7, per particular person.

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