- Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino denied claims by the Wall Street Journal that the company is under investigation by the U.S. Government.
- The WSJ reported that Tether is being investigated for potential involvement in illegal activities and that the Treasury Department is considering sanctions.
- Despite past controversies and a recent $18.5 million fine, Ardoino dismissed these allegations as “old noise.”
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino just dismissed reports that the stablecoin company is under investigation by the U.S. Government.
The report came from Wall Street Journal only an hour before this time of writing – and talks about prosecutors from the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s Office investigating whether Tether has been used to fund illegal activities including drug trafficking, money laundering, terrorism, and hacking.
WSJ also claims that the Treasury Department is pondering imposing sanctions on the crypto firm due to the stablecoin allegedly being used by U.S.-sanctioned groups including Hamas.
If true, such sanctions would have a significant impact on the cryptocurrency market as U.S. citizens would have been prohibited from using USDT – the largest stablecoin by market capitalization – as a payment method in the country.
Tether CEO Denies Accusations
The main boss at Tether was quick to dismiss the Wall Street Journal’s accusations. In less than 20 minutes after the article was published – Paolo Ardoino went on X (former Twitter) to deny claims of investigations by the Federal Government.
By “old noise” Ardoino is referring to the countless accusations claiming that Tether was used to fund terrorist groups and other U.S.-sanctioned groups in the past. Despite these claims, no tangible accusation has been put forward so far.
However, the company has seen its share of controversy over recent years, including having to pay a $18.5 million fine after the New York Attorney General’s office accused Tether and its parent company and crypto exchange Bitfinex of not being transparent about the near $87 billion reserves that backs USDT.
