‘The Rats Are Leaving the Ship’: Bessent Says Iran’s Leaders ‘Wiring Money out Like Crazy’ as Regime Fears ‘End May Be Near’

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Thursday that Iran’s ruling elite are “wiring money out of the country like crazy,” declaring that “the rats are leaving the ship” as the Trump administration’s pressure campaign accelerates the regime’s economic collapse.

Bessent made the remarks during testimony before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, telling lawmakers that Treasury is seeing unmistakable signs that Iran’s leadership believes the regime is approaching a breaking point.

“We have seen the Iranian leadership wiring money out of the country like crazy,” Bessent said. “The rats are leaving the ship. That is a good sign that they know the end may be near.”

The treasury secretary said the capital flight is the direct result of a deliberate pressure strategy that has hollowed out Iran’s economy, triggered a banking crisis, and sent the country’s currency into free fall.

“At the Treasury, what we have done is created a dollar shortage in the country,” Bessent said, pointing back to a strategy he outlined last March at the Economic Club of New York.

That strategy, he said, reached what he described as a “swift and grand culmination” in December, when one of Iran’s largest banks collapsed, setting off a run on the financial system.

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“The central bank had to print money,” Bessent said. “The Iranian currency went into freefall. Inflation exploded. And hence we’ve seen the Iranian people out on the street.”

Protests erupted across Iran in late December as living conditions deteriorated rapidly, fueled by soaring prices, currency devaluation, and mounting public anger over corruption and economic mismanagement — unrest that has since been met with a violent regime crackdown.

Rather than attempting to stabilize the economy, Bessent said, Iran’s leadership has responded by siphoning off national wealth for its own survival, moving tens of millions of dollars abroad as pressure mounts.

“The good news, Senator,” he said, “is that we have seen — and we can see it through Treasury’s FinCEN tracking.”

Bessent said Treasury is tracking that capital flight across the global financial system, including both traditional banking channels and digital assets, warning that regime officials will not be able to hide stolen funds from U.S. scrutiny.

Last month, Treasury escalated sanctions against senior Iranian officials and regime-linked financial networks, targeting what it described as the “architects” of Iran’s violent repression along with the shadow banking sector and oil-export systems used to launder regime revenue — pressure Bessent said has pushed the Islamic Republic into “economic self-immolation.”

The financial pressure campaign is unfolding alongside renewed diplomatic and military tensions, as Iran prepares to send its foreign minister to Oman on Friday for nuclear talks with U.S. envoys after days of uncertainty over whether negotiations would proceed.

On Thursday — on the eve of renewed negotiations — Iran unveiled an underground “missile city” housing a new long-range ballistic missile while IRGC-linked outlets laid out a multi-stage war plan against the United States, sharpening the stakes as Washington and Tehran approach talks amid President Trump’s warning that time for diplomacy is running out.

The escalation comes as U.S. intelligence assessments briefed to President Trump describe Iran’s Islamic regime as operating from its weakest position since the 1979 revolution, battered by economic collapse, internal unrest, and sustained external pressure.

Bessent declined to speculate on how long the regime can hold on, but said the financial signals coming out of Iran are clear.

“When you see the leadership moving money out like this,” he said, “it tells you everything you need to know about what they think is coming next.”