{"id":20756,"date":"2025-01-29T15:47:59","date_gmt":"2025-01-29T13:47:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/elizabeth-warren-questions-ties-between-u-s-commerce-secretary-nominee-and-tether\/"},"modified":"2025-01-29T15:47:59","modified_gmt":"2025-01-29T13:47:59","slug":"elizabeth-warren-questions-ties-between-u-s-commerce-secretary-nominee-and-tether","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/elizabeth-warren-questions-ties-between-u-s-commerce-secretary-nominee-and-tether\/","title":{"rendered":"Elizabeth Warren Questions Ties Between U.S. Commerce Secretary Nominee and Tether"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Senator Elizabeth Warren has expressed &#8220;serious concern&#8221; over Howard Lutnick&#8217;s &#8220;personal ties&#8221; with Tether and its affiliates. This was stated in her <a href=\"https:\/\/www.warren.senate.gov\/newsroom\/press-releases\/warren-probes-lutnick-for-ties-to-crypto-firm-with-long-record-of-financing-terrorists-illicit-activity\">letter<\/a> to the nominee for the <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/trumps-team-expands-list-of-candidates-for-sec-chair\">U.S. Commerce Secretary<\/a> position.<\/p>\n<p>The anti-crypto senator raised questions about the collaboration between Tether and Cantor Fitzgerald, where Lutnick served as CEO.<\/p>\n<p>She described the stablecoin issuer as a &#8220;notorious organizer of criminal activity,&#8221; and USDT as &#8220;the favorite cryptocurrency of wrongdoers.&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><em>&#8220;Although you agreed to divest your stake in Cantor Fitzgerald, which <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/cantor-fitzgerald-secures-5-stake-in-tether-reports-wsj\"><em>owns 5% of Tether shares<\/em><\/a><em> and acts as its asset manager, this does not eliminate questions about your deep personal ties to the company or its affiliates,&#8221;<\/em> the document states.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Warren questioned Lutnick&#8217;s &#8220;ability to prioritize the interests of U.S. citizens over personal gain&#8221; if confirmed as Commerce Secretary.<\/p>\n<p>If approved on January 29, the former CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald would gain &#8220;extraordinary access&#8221; to President Donald Trump and other officials overseeing Tether.<\/p>\n<p>This could allow him to &#8220;directly or indirectly influence the regulation of the stablecoin issuer and the entire crypto industry,&#8221; Warren warned.<\/p>\n<p>The senator urged Lutnick to respond by February 10 to 13 questions, revealing details about his stake in Tether and discussions with Trump administration officials about the company.<\/p>\n<p>Warren also requested information regarding Cantor Fitzgerald&#8217;s audit of the USDT issuer&#8217;s compliance with legislation.<\/p>\n<p>The senator is not a member of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, which will hold hearings on the Commerce Secretary&#8217;s confirmation.<\/p>\n<p>Warren is known for her <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/elizabeth-warren-labels-cryptocurrency-a-tool-for-fraudsters\">criticism<\/a> of digital assets. She has notably developed a bill to combat money laundering, extending <span data-descr=\"Bank Secrecy Act\" class=\"old_tooltip\">BSA<\/span> requirements, including <span data-descr=\"know your customer\" class=\"old_tooltip\">KYC<\/span>, to miners, validators, and wallet operators.<\/p>\n<p>Previously, Fox Business journalist Eleanor Terrett <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/grayscale-and-coinbase-discuss-eth-etf-conversion-with-sec\">explained<\/a> the delay in <span data-descr=\"U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission\" class=\"old_tooltip\">SEC<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/sec-approves-s-1-filings-for-eth-etf-trading-begins-july-23\">approval<\/a> of spot Ethereum ETFs as being due to pressure from Warren on the agency&#8217;s head.<\/p>\n<p>Lutnick described the relationship between Cantor Fitzgerald and the USDT issuer as purely professional and based on managing the latter&#8217;s reserves.<\/p>\n<p>In September, Tether, TRON, and TRM Labs <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/tether-tron-and-trm-labs-form-alliance-to-combat-illicit-usdt-activities\">established<\/a> the T3 Financial Crime Unit alliance to combat financial crimes. It will focus on preventing the illegal use of USDT on the TRON blockchain.<\/p>\n<p>In the same month, the company helped the U.S. Department of Justice <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/tether-aids-in-freezing-6-million-from-crypto-fraudsters\">seize<\/a> assets worth over $6 million linked to crypto scammers from Southeast Asia.<\/p>\n<p>A month later, the WSJ reported <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/paolo-ardoino-refutes-wsj-article-on-us-investigation-into-tether\">on an investigation<\/a> by U.S. authorities into possible violations by Tether of sanctions and anti-money laundering rules. The firm&#8217;s CEO, Paolo Ardoino, denied this information.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Senator Elizabeth Warren has expressed &#8220;serious concern&#8221; over Howard Lutnick&#8217;s &#8220;personal ties&#8221; with Tether and its affiliates. This was stated in her letter to the nominee for the U.S. Commerce Secretary position. The anti-crypto senator raised questions about the collaboration between Tether and Cantor Fitzgerald, where Lutnick served as CEO. She described the stablecoin issuer [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20755,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"","news_style_id":"","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1175,1714,36,1245,1230],"class_list":["post-20756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-elizabeth-warren","tag-howard-lutnick","tag-regulation","tag-tether-usdt","tag-us-congress"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"23","promo_type":"","layout_type":"","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20756"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20756\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}