Iran: Rats Fleeing the Ship—Leaders Wire Tens of Millions Out. We’re Tracking Every Dollar” Bessent

According to a report by Times of Israel, on Thursday January 15, 2026, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent exposed a financial exodus Wednesday, revealing Iran’s ruling elite are smuggling tens of millions of dollars out of the country as the regime teeters.

“We can see the rats fleeing the ship,” Bessent declared in an Interview Newsmax. “We are seeing it come into banks and financial institutions all over the world. They are abandoning ship.”

The timing exposes panic. Iran’s nationwide protests erupted in late December 2025 over economic grievances but rapidly transformed into an openly regime-change movement, with demonstrators demanding the end of the Islamic Republic itself. The combination of internal collapse and potential U.S. military strikes triggered the capital flight.

Treasury sanctioned 450+ entities and vessels in Iran’s shadow fleet and oil networks throughout 2025, dismantling a $3 billion shadow banking network laundering oil revenues Council on Foreign Relations. The maximum pressure campaign strangled regime finances. Bessent described witnessing “a complete financial collapse of the regime—banks going out of business, inflation surging, and hard currency shortages”.

“We are tracing these assets and they will not be able to keep them,” Bessent warned. The message: no safe harbor exists.

Treasury designated teapot refineries purchasing billions in Iranian crude, targeted IRGC ballistic missile networks, and executed the largest Iran sanctions package since 2018 with 110+ designations in a single action Council on Foreign Relations. Intelligence-sharing partnerships with financial institutions worldwide enable real-time tracking of illicit transfers.

Sanctions tied to Iran’s nuclear program, combined with economic damage from last summer’s 12-day war with Israel and the United States, have battered the country’s economy.

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