Members of Iran’s ruling elite are said to have left the country with “tens of millions of dollars” as the US imposed new sanctions against the regime’s violent protest. reports.
The regime’s “capital flight” came as the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control announced on January 15 in a edition that it was “taking action against the shadow banking networks that enable Iran’s elite to steal and launder revenues from the country’s natural resources.”
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House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith sent a letter to Treasury Secretary and acting IRS chief Scott Bessent, pictured here, and IRS CEO Frank Bisignano referred CAIR-California for IRS review. (Al Drago/Getty Images)
If confirmed, says Ben Taleblu, the suspected exodus of funds underlines the need for US authorities to track down and “freeze and seize” assets linked to sanctioned figures.
“If there has been capital flight, these are accounts that the US government should monitor, block, freeze and seize,” he said.
“At President Trump’s direction, the Treasury Department is imposing sanctions on key Iranian leaders involved in the brutal crackdown on the Iranian people. The Treasury Department will use every tool available to pursue those behind the regime’s tyrannical suppression of human rights,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also said in a speech. statement on January 15.
Bessent then revealed in a interview how his department had monitored the wiring of “tens of millions of dollars” from Iran by leaders.
“We are now seeing the rats fleeing the ship because we can see millions, tens of millions of dollars being siphoned out of the country, being snuck out of the country by the Iranian leadership,” Bessent added.
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Sanctions from the Ministry of Finance are aimed at Iran’s shadow banking system, because Mojtaba Khamenei is said to have transferred millions abroad. (QASSEM AL-KAABI/AFP via Getty Images)
“So they abandon ship, and we see it coming into banks and financial institutions all over the world,” he added.
Iranian figures are said to have transferred large amounts of money abroad, with Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, reportedly transferring around $328 million abroad as part of an estimated $1.5 billion shift in recent days, Channel 14 reported.
“There were also some posts on social media about large amounts of Bitcoin being transferred, or other types of financial assets. I have not been able to independently confirm that, but it is something that is being discussed,” Ben Taleblu added.
“The fact that the Treasury Department is looking at this says very seriously that Washington is also trying to tie its foreign economic policy to its national security policy,” he said.
Ben Taleblu also claimed that Iran’s shadow banking system is deeply entrenched in global finance, with billions of dollars channeled through jurisdictions “including the United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong and Singapore.”
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Trump is considering US options to respond to Iran’s crackdown on protesters. (Mark Schiefelbein/AP Photo; Toby Melville/Reuters)
“In the past, Washington has monitored the regime’s shadow banking activities, which unfortunately includes trafficking and money laundering through friendlier, more Western-oriented jurisdictions,” Ben Taleblu explains.
“In fact, the Treasury Department has identified almost $9 billion Iranian shadow banking activities that has affected the accounts of American correspondents in 2024,” he said.
Ben Taleblu added that the economic pressure campaign is drawing renewed attention to President Donald Trump’s next move.
“All eyes are now on President Trump to see if he takes a page from the Reagan playbook, the Obama playbook or something completely different,” Ben Taleblu said.
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“The million-dollar question is whether there will be anything kinetic, especially after the most violent crackdown on protesters in the history of the Islamic Republic.”
“Economic sanctions are useful and necessary,” he added, “but they are far from sufficient to level the playing field between the street and the state.”
