Tether freezes $225 million in USDT linked to a criminal syndicate

The issuer of the stablecoin USDT, Tether, blocked around $225 million in USDT as part of cooperation with the U.S. Department of Justice, the cryptocurrency exchange OKX, and analytics firm Chainalysis.

Following Investigations by Tether, OKX, and the U.S. Department of Justice, Tether Voluntarily Freezes 225M in Stolen USDT Linked to International Crime Syndicate https://t.co/yrofwNtK5s

— Tether (@Tether_to) November 20, 2023

According to the press release, the funds are linked to an international criminal syndicate involved in human trafficking in Southeast Asia. The amount of frozen USDT at Tether was described as the largest in history.

“During a multi-month investigation conducted by Tether and OKX, U.S. law enforcement agencies, including the Department of Justice, were pre-warned about the location of illicit funds through blockchain analysis. These actions led to a freeze request by the U.S. Secret Service and subsequent voluntary freezing by Tether,” the company said.

Appointed as CEO of the issuer, Paolo Ardoino, described the work as “impressive”.

Impressive work by @Tether_to and @okx teams, alongside with Law Enforcement to stop bad guys? https://t.co/P0U8ydP91x

— Paolo Ardoino ?(@paoloardoino) November 20, 2023

“We believe in the necessity of using technologies and networks, such as our collaboration with OKX, to actively counter illicit activity and uphold the highest standards of integrity in the industry,” added Ardoino.

Earlier, Tether froze more than $2.5 million USDT withdrawn from the cross-chain protocol Multichain. In September the issuer blocked $1.4 million of the $2.7 million stolen from the Remitano exchange.

In October, a similar procedure targeted 32 addresses totaling $873,118.34 due to links to conflicts in Israel and Ukraine.