Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino says lawmakers are investigating the company for potential violations of anti-money laundering and sanctions laws
The reported probe, led by prosecutors in Manhattan, is looking into whether Tether’s cryptocurrency Tether. usdt is a fraud.
The Wall Street Journal says that Tether has been used to either fund illegal activities like drug dealing or terrorism or to hide the money that was made from these activities.
On the other hand, the WSJ reports that the U.S. Treasury Department is considering sanctions on Tether.
Due to sanctions, Americans might not be able to do business with the company. This is mainly because the company’s cryptocurrency has been used by people and groups that are subject to sanctions, such as Russian arms traders and the terrorist group Hamas.
Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether, strongly denied these rumors. He wrote on X, “As we told WSJ, there is no indication that Tether is under investigation.” The WSJ is spewing out old garbage. End of sentence.
Criticisms of Tether in the past
Consumers’ Research released a report in September criticizing Tether. This company makes the USDT stablecoin for not being open and honest and for not doing a full audit of its dollar stockpiles, even though it had promised to do so since 2017.
The report compared Tether’s operations to those of the failed FTX and raised worries about how it might be used to get around international sanctions, especially in Russia and Venezuela.
If you compare Tether’s cryptocurrency to Bitcoin, which changes value all the time, this one, called a stablecoin, is tied to the value of the U.S. dollar. Because it is stable, Tether is popular in places where the U.S. dollar is hard to get or not allowed at all.
Every day, up to $190 billion worth of tether is moved worldwide. This makes it the most popular cryptocurrency in the world.
Tether has denied any wrongdoing, but the company has taken steps to stop people from abusing its currency, such as working with companies that keep track of transfers.