Report Claims Tether Used False Documents to Open Bank Accounts
Hey Peeps!
On March 3rd, the Wall Street Journal published a bombshell report that claims the crypto companies backing Tether (USDT), the largest stablecoin in the world, used “shadowy intermediaries, falsified documents and shell companies” to access the Global Banking System.
According to the report, the efforts to keep their bank accounts via fraudulent methods was necessary after Wells Fargo stopped processing transactions from Taiwanese accounts using Tether in 2017.
Tether investors and users became anxious after this, and Tether reportedly decided to take matters into their own hands by opening new bank accounts “using established business executives and tweaking company names”.
The report also claims that Tether, and the exchange Bitfinex, used shell companies “to open networks of bank accounts that worked as an unlicensed money transmitting business for crypto companies”.
According to an email obtained by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), one of the owners of Tether Holdings Ltd, Stephen Moore, stated that a major Tether trader was attempting to “circumvent the banking system by providing fake sales invoices and contracts for each deposit and withdrawal”.
In that same email, Stephen Moore then appears to admit that he knowingly signed off on the false sales invoices/contracts, and says it is too risky too continue with the efforts to open Bank accounts by fraudulent means.
After the WSJ report made its waves, Tether responded by publishing a statement on their website.
Tether utterly rejected the claims made by the Wall Street Journal by calling the allegations “wholly inaccurate and misleading”, while also affirming that Tether touts “world-class compliance programs”.
“The Wall Street Journal’s report about stale allegations from long ago is wholly inaccurate and misleading. Bitfinex and Tether have world-class compliance programs and adhere to applicable Anti-Money Laundering, Know Your Customer, and Counter-Terrorist Financing legal requirements.
Bitfinex and Tether are proud partners of global law enforcement, and routinely and voluntarily assist the United States Department of Justice and other law enforcement organizations across the world in preventing money laundering, terrorism, and other crimes by bad actors.
These unfair attacks will not distract us from continuing with those efforts and offering the most liquid and reliable stablecoin experience, which the market has clearly recognized by making us the leaders in the industry.”
- Tether
Tether is the 3rd largest cryptocurrency with a Market Cap of $71 billion, and is currently the most traded crypto in the entire world with a 24-hour trading volume exceeding $31 billion USD.
This brings some context as to why a company might go to these lengths to keep access to liquidity.
With such a large operation, you can understand why losing access to the Global Banking System would be an immediate threat to the existence of Tether.
In my personal opinion, I have always stayed away from Tether (USDT) whenever I could.
I have always been concerned whether Tether is actually backed by anything, and I do not want to be caught holding the bag on Tether if it were to ever unravel.
I will end this by saying that is is important to remember these are only allegations and there is still a lot more to learn about this before we can make any determinations on what happened.
What are your thoughts on this news?
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