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Members of Iran’s ruling elite are said to have moved “tens of millions of dollars” out of the country as the U.S. imposed fresh sanctions over the regime’s violent protest crackdown, according to reports.
The regime’s “capital flight” came as the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control announced on Jan. 15 in a release that it was taking “action against the shadow banking networks that allow Iran’s elite to steal and launder revenue generated by the country’s natural resources.”
“There are several reports, some of which are yet to be confirmed, about capital flight in various forms from the Islamic Republic,” Behnam Ben Taleblu, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Digital.
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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 referring CAIR-California for IRS review. (Al Drago/Getty Images)
If confirmed, Ben Taleblu said, the suspected exodus of money underscores the need for U.S. authorities to track and “freeze and seize” assets tied to sanctioned figures.
“If capital flight has taken place, then these are accounts that the U.S. government should be looking to monitor, block, freeze and seize,” he said.
“At the direction of President Trump, the Treasury Department is sanctioning key Iranian leaders involved in the brutal crackdown against the Iranian people. Treasury will use every tool to target those behind the regime’s tyrannical oppression of human rights,” Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent also said in a statement on Jan. 15.
Bessent went on to reveal in an interview how his department had tracked the wiring of “tens of millions of dollars” out of Iran by leaders.
“We are now seeing the rats fleeing the ship, because we can see millions, tens of millions of dollars being wired out of the country, snuck out of the country by the Iranian leadership,” Bessent added.
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Treasury sanctions target Iran’s shadow banking as Mojtaba Khamenei allegedly transferred millions overseas, ( QASSEM AL-KAABI/AFP via Getty Images)
“So they are abandoning ship, and we are seeing it come into banks and financial institutions all over the world,” he added.
Iranian figures were said to be moving large sums abroad, with Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei allegedly transferring roughly $328 million overseas as part of an estimated $1.5 billion shift in recent days, Channel 14 reported.
“There were also some reports on social media about large volumes of Bitcoin being transferred, or other kinds of financial assets. I haven’t been able to independently confirm that, but it is something that’s being discussed,” Ben Taleblu added.
“The fact that the Treasury Department is looking at this tells you quite seriously that Washington is also trying to link its foreign economic policy with its national security policy,” he said.
Ben Taleblu also claimed Iran’s shadow banking system has been deeply embedded in global finance, with billions of dollars routed through jurisdictions “including the United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong and Singapore.”
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Trump is weighing U.S. options to respond to Iran’s crackdown on protesters. (Mark Schiefelbein/AP Photo;Toby Melville/Reuters)
“In the past, Washington has tracked the regime’s shadow banking activities, which, unfortunately, even include trade and money laundering through friendlier, more Western-leaning jurisdictions,” Ben Taleblu explained.
“In fact, the Treasury Department identified almost $9 billion of Iranian shadow banking activity that touched U.S. correspondent accounts throughout 2024,” he said.
Ben Taleblu added that the economic pressure campaign places renewed attention on President Donald Trump’s next move.
“All eyes right now are on President Trump to see if he takes a page from the Reagan playbook, the Obama playbook, or something else entirely,” Ben Taleblu said.
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“The million-dollar question is whether there will be something kinetic, especially after the most violent crackdown against protesters in the Islamic Republic’s history.”
“Economic sanctions are helpful and necessary,” he added, “but they are nowhere near sufficient to level the playing field between the street and the state.”
