The U.S. Department of Justice has resumed a probe into possible bank fraud by the executives of Tether, the company behind the USDT stablecoin. Bloomberg, citing sources, reports this.
For the first time the agency reported the authorities’ interest in the firm in July 2021. At that time, sources said the probe touched on early stages of Tether’s operations and concerned cryptocurrency-related transactions.
Representatives of the USDT issuer later described the piece as clickbait, based on unnamed sources and claims from years past.
According to new information, the probe was allegedly taken up by Southern District of New York prosecutor Damian Williams. Earlier his name appeared in connection with an investigation with the co-founders of BitMEX, specifically the exchange’s former head of development Greg Dwyer.
On October 31, the Tether team again rejected Bloomberg’s report:
“Disseminating false information is the greatest threat facing the cryptocurrency industry as it exists today. … Bloomberg is reworking old news that does not reflect reality.”
Bloomberg Fishes Age-old News for Headlines https://t.co/7N5LobmXqy
— Tether (@Tether_to) October 31, 2022
The company emphasized that it remains in regular dialogue with law enforcement authorities, including the U.S. Department of Justice.
As reported in June, media reported о «популярности» коротких позиций по USDT на фоне негативных явлений на рынке и коллапса экосистемы Terra.
Then Tether Limited’s CTO Paolo Ardoino said the company had processed fiat conversions of 7 billion tokens (about 10% of total assets).
Prior to that, the stablecoin issuer denied rumors of dominance in reserves of Chinese commercial papers.
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