US Senators investigate mutual benefit suspicions between Tether and "Secretary of Commerce": Trust fund for children received a deposit

📄Full Article· Automatically extracted by trafilaturaGemini 翻譯1607 words

US Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ron Wyden have sent a letter to Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick and Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino, investigating whether Tether is "attempting to bribe or exert control and influence." The day after the US Secretary of Commerce sold his stake in Cantor Fitzgerald last October, a family trust for his children received a loan of an undisclosed amount from Tether. (Previous coverage: Wall Street enters Bitcoin lending: Trump's Commerce Secretary's firm Cantor provides $10 billion in "BTC-collateralized loans," son previously worked at Tether) (Background: US Senate officially passes the GENIUS Stablecoin Act, next step is the final vote in the House) The relationship between the US Secretary of Commerce and the world's largest stablecoin issuer, Tether, has become a focal point. According to The Block, US Senators Warren and Wyden issued an open letter stating that the loan Tether provided to US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick's family trust "raises serious concerns about whether Tether is attempting to bribe or otherwise exert control and influence over you." Kathleen Clark, a law professor at Washington University, reviewed the relevant documents and noted: "This transaction theoretically should have eliminated a conflict of interest, but in practice, it created a new one." Loan received by the trust the day after the company sale In October 2025, to comply with ethics rules for cabinet members, Secretary of Commerce Lutnick sold his multi-billion dollar stake in Cantor Fitzgerald to a family trust benefiting his four adult children. His son, Brandon Lutnick, took over as Chairman and CEO of Cantor, while Kyle Lutnick became Executive Vice Chairman. The day after the sale was completed, a credit filing appeared in New York State, showing that a trust named "Dynasty Trust A" borrowed an undisclosed amount from Tether. The loan is secured by "all assets" held by the trust, including any assets acquired in the future. After Bloomberg first disclosed this in March, Cantor spokesperson Stan Neve stated that the transaction was "completed through multiple sources, multiple companies, and multiple trusts at market rates and market prices," but declined to disclose the amount or purpose. Warren and Wyden directly questioned in the letter: This loan may have "helped the Secretary of Commerce's children obtain the funds needed to purchase their father's Cantor shares, and Tether thereby gained an interest in his children's assets." A Department of Commerce spokesperson responded that Lutnick "has fully complied with the terms of his ethics agreement, including all divestiture and recusal requirements." After the shares were divested, a portion of the funds used to acquire them came from the company's largest client. Fourth Congressional inquiry This is the fourth Congressional inquiry Warren and Wyden have launched into Lutnick. During his confirmation hearing in January 2025, Warren called Tether a "known conduit for criminal activity" and the "cryptocurrency of choice for bad actors"; in August of the same year, they investigated Cantor's "tariff refund agreements" that allowed clients to bet on the Department of Commerce's own tariff policies; and in February 2026, they investigated a $1.6 billion USA Rare Earth transaction. All four letters have pursued the depth of the relationship between Cantor and Tether. The numbers provide part of the answer. In April 2024, Cantor spent $600 million to purchase convertible bonds, acquiring a 5% stake in Tether. By the end of 2025, Cantor was custodying approximately 99% of Tether's US Treasury reserves. Tether's total reserves reached $192 billion, with an annual profit of $10 billion and a profit margin of nearly 99%. Cantor earns tens of millions of dollars in fees annually from this custodial relationship. When the GENIUS Stablecoin Act was signed last year, Tether CEO Ardoino sat in the front row of the ceremony. Warren and Wyden have set a deadline of May 13 for a response, but as members of the minority party, they currently lack the power to compel disclosure. Lutnick publicly stated at the Davos Forum in 2024: "There is a company I like called Tether, and their money is real." Now, the two senators want to confirm whether the money lent to his family trust was also provided under transparent conditions.

Data Status✓ Full text extractedRead Original (動區 BlockTempo)

🔍Historical Similar Events· Keyword + Asset Matching6 items

2026-04-29

Free Bitcoin is here! Tether announces the launch of a Bitcoin faucet; download the wallet and post on X to receive an airdrop of BTC.

Similarity 290%標的 USDT關鍵字 tether同分類 zh

2026-04-27

Tether launches open-source Bitcoin mining development kit MDK: Rejecting vendor lock-in and moving toward AI automation

Similarity 290%標的 USDT關鍵字 tether同分類 zh

2026-04-24

Cambodian Senator Kok An sanctioned by the US! Involved in 28 pig-butchering entities, Tether freezes 344 million USDT on the same day

Similarity 290%標的 USDT關鍵字 tether同分類 zh

2026-04-20