Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino says the company froze flagged addresses an average of four weeks before official sanctions designations. He was responding to a Senate report on Iran-linked wallets. Senator Richard Blumenthal's office alleges delays in blocking them and has asked for federal investigations.
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino challenged Senator Richard Blumenthal's Iran sanctions report, saying the company has frozen flagged addresses an average of four weeks before official designations since 2023. He made the claim in an Oct. 19 post.
Ardoino said the comparison covered designations by the U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control and Israel's National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing. He also said Tether acted before Chainalysis labeled the addresses, and wrote that "for 99% of the times Tether froze the reported addresses before Chainalysis labelled them." According to Ardoino, the company's actions led to a 94% decline in Iran-linked stablecoin volumes.
The figures are company assertions
The post does not identify the addresses behind either timing figure, the number of observations, or the period measured for the volume decline. Ardoino's figures remain company assertions, with no independently examined dataset behind the averages or the claimed reduction.
Senate investigators allege delays in blocking wallets
Blumenthal's office reported on Sep. 28 that 84% of 846 wallets transacted exclusively, or nearly exclusively, in USDT. The release attributed the analysis to Democratic staff of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.
The report described 39 addresses that the Israeli bureau identified in June 2023 as associated with a Hezbollah money launderer. According to the report, Tether froze five of them earlier but waited until March 2024 to block the other 34. Investigators said more than $34.6 million in USDT left the designated wallets after the seizure notice was published.
The staff added a qualification: Footnote 56 says Israeli orders sometimes became public weeks or months after their signature dates.
Blumenthal asks Treasury and DOJ to investigate
Blumenthal referred the findings to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Attorney General Todd Blanche. His letters requested investigations into potential sanctions and banking-law violations, including under the Bank Secrecy Act and the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. The release requests an investigation and announces no finding of liability by either department.
Source: crypto.news
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