The “Wall Street Journal” reported on March 3 that Tether, the USDT issuer, was suspected of using forged documents and shell companies to open bank accounts, allowing the company to use traditional banking services while avoiding investigations, and was suspected of raising funds for terrorist organizations. Funding and processing of black market remittances.
The Wall Street Journal made its statement based on the content of an email written by Stephen Moore, one of the shareholders of “Tether Holdings Ltd.” to circumvent the banking system,” and one of the intermediaries was an important Tether dealer in China.
Stephen Moore pointed out in the email that it is too dangerous to continue to use the fake sales invoices and contracts he signed, and suggested to give up opening an account: “I don’t want to be involved in a potential fraud/money laundering case.”
Separately, a batch of emails and documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal show Tether has long struggled to maintain relationships with financial institutions, where the company often hides its identity behind other businesses or individuals. Among them, in Taiwan, these accounts were hosted by Chris Lee, an executive of “Hylab Technology Ltd.”, which manufactures TV set-top boxes, and opened in the name of Hylab Holdings Ltd.
One of the documents records multiple accounts created for Tether and its sister company Bitfinex exchange, one of which is called “Deniz Royal Dis Ticaret Limited Sirketi” opened in Turkey, but according to a filing by the U.S. Department of Justice According to an investigation paper, the account was allegedly used by a Hamas militant group to raise funds and launder money.
The account was used in 2020 to accept cryptocurrency donations and convert them into fiat currency, and the group allegedly used Bitfinex’s account for black market remittances and more than $80 million in transactions with the aforementioned Deniz Royal firm.
Tether is being investigated by the U.S. Department of Justice, which is being run by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan, according to a person familiar with the matter. In response to the Wall Street Journal report, Tether responded through its official blog, accusing the report of being inaccurate and misleading.
Recently, the United States has been actively investigating a number of cryptocurrency companies, among which Paxos, the BUSD issuer of Binance, was the first to be shot , and it dragged the pressure on Binance and demanded an investigation.
