The issuer of the USDT stablecoin Tether helped the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice seize about $1.4 million worth of USDT.
Tether stated in a statement on March 12 that assets will be given back to fraud victims. U.S. officials commended the corporation for their assistance. Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said:
“The seizure of $1.4 million worth of Tether (USDT) marks a significant milestone in our ongoing efforts to uphold integrity in this rapidly evolving industry.”
Tether claims that the majority of the scam’s victims were elderly Americans. Scammers used pop-ups to fool victims into thinking that their systems had been compromised and to get them to get in touch with technical help.
After deceiving the victims into believing their bank accounts were vulnerable, the money was transferred into Bitcoin to keep them safe from hackers.
The attackers’ virtual currency wallets received the transfer of these monies. To assist with freezing its assets, Tether is actively collaborating with U.S. authorities. It placed assets in 41 people-owned wallets on the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned list in December.
Tether actively provides information to law enforcement agencies in order to support ongoing investigations and collaborates with 19 jurisdictions globally.
The firm froze 800 million USDT in secondary market addresses, mostly due to theft and hacking. The business claimed to have blocked 188 wallets holding 70 million USDT after helping the U.S. Department of Justice with 68 petitions.
