The Iranian regime has gone on the offensive, threatening anyone who supported the recent protests in any way — after a crackdown that sources tell CBS News may have killed some 12,000 people, and possibly many more. Thousands of people were arrested and are now facing possible death sentences for taking part in the demonstrations.

The post-protest reprisals are meant to frighten people into silence. They include going after businesses, money and financial assets connected to anyone seen as having backed the anti-regime demonstrations.

Mohammad Saedinia is one particularly high-profile example.

He is famous in Iran as the owner of a chain of candy shops and buzzing cafes beloved by residents in the capital Tehran, especially young liberals. He also established a popular shopping mall near the holy city of Qom.

The regional justice department in Qom announced Wednesday that Saedinia had been arrested, accusing him of "calling on the people to riot and cause chaos."

Saedinia's only crime appears to have been closing his cafes at the very outset of the protests in late December, and to make it clear in a social media post that it was in solidarity with business people — including many stall holders from Tehran's main bazaar — who closed their shops to express their anger over a catastrophic plunge in the value of Iran's currency.

Those demonstrations against economic hardship and the regime's appalling financial record snowballed quickly into the nationwide protests against the Islamic Republic's leadership itself. 

Tasnim, a semi-official news agency associated with the country's powerful Revolutionary Guards, said Wednesday that Saedinia's operating licenses and operating permits had been cancelled and his businesses shut down.

Tasnim also quoted Iran's Attorney General Mohammad Movahedi Azad as saying that officials from the country's judiciary were "obliged to identify the property of the 'terrorists' and report it to the prosecutors."

It is a powerful warning to all businesses in the country that they should open their doors for trade as normal — and shut up about the last two weeks of unrest.

The financial threat extends beyond Iran's business community.  The attorney general, who like other Iranian officials refers to protesters as "terrorists," is demanding the seizure of property belonging to anyone linked to the demonstrations, to "teach them a lesson."

President Trump's threat to take some as yet unspecified action against the regime is hanging over the leadership. On the one hand, they've responded by threatening reprisals against U.S. military installations in the region. On the other hand, they are seeking this week to show they're moving on from the unrest.

A pro-regime source inside Iran told CBS News on Wednesday that the regime's public position — repeated on state television — is that the protests were an attempt by the U.S. and Israel to topple the government, "which badly failed."

The source called estimates of the death toll "fabricated and fake," and insisted that the "situation is now calm and under control for the third day in a row."