By
Mayowa Adebajo
June 26th, 2024
Tether is facing a new round of corruption allegation campaign hinging on support for terrorist organization and tax evaders.
There is an ongoing campaign targeted at largest stablecoin issuer Tether, accusing the firm of corruption and some form of criminal activities. Fox Business journalist Eleanor Terrett reported the campaign which featured a digital billboard in Times Square New York City.
🚨NEW: A digital billboard accusing the world’s largest stablecoin @Tether_to of corruption is being featured in Times Square, NYC right now. https://t.co/tH71Z0tLYS pic.twitter.com/QoBHXYrGOe
— Eleanor Terrett (@EleanorTerrett) June 18, 2024
Link Established Between Tether and Terrorist Groups
This Tether-focused campaign comes packaged with mobile billboards, a television ad, and a dedicated website; TetheredToCorruption.com.
Precisely, Tether is being accused of using the United States dollar-pegged stablecoin USDT (USDT price data) to facilitate terrorism funding. This will not be the first time that the company is facing this kind of criticism. At a time, there were allegations of Tether helping different governments to circumvent sanctions with the use of the stablecoin. Other accusations include the use of USDT for wider illicit activities like money laundering.
Consumers’ Research, a popular conservative non-profit organization is pioneering this new campaign against the stablecoin issuer. The firm has tried to establish Tether’s connection with terrorist financing, drug trafficking, and human trafficking groups as well as with the Chinese and Russian governments.
Some of the groups suspected to be associated with Tether are Hamas, Al Qaeda, ISIS, and many others.
During the Hamas’ October 7 attacks on Israel, both Binance and Tether were accused of providing crypto funding to the terrorist organization. US Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) requested that the US Department of Justice (DOJ) take decisive action against the two major cryptocurrency entities. At the time, over 100 Binance accounts were frozen by the Israeli government while Tether was forced to freeze assets worth approximately $800,000.
The Executive Director of the consumer advocacy bloc, Will Hild is certain that Tether has a close relationship with Russia and other countries that constantly evade sanctions. To buttress his stance, Hild cited Tether’s constant refusal to undergo independent audits. This has gone on for more than ten years, according to the Consumers’ Research director.
Could Tether be the Next FTX?
Hild likened this lack of transparency to the situation with Bahamian-headquartered exchange FTX which imploded in 2022. He stated that they share some similarities like operating outside the U.S and facing allegations of questionable financial practices.
Generally, the campaign tries to highlight USDT as the stablecoin of choice amongst criminals in the last couple of months. The reason for this preference may not be far-fetched. Tether is a digital currency that is pegged to the USD in a ratio of 1:1. This gives it a stable value amongst its counterparts.
Tether’s audit refusal has raised concerns and some observers have begun to liken the crypto project to a Ponzi scheme. The company is known for constantly debunking such accusations. However, at the time of this writing, Tether has not issued any official statement about the campaign. It has also not debunked the allegations levied against it.