Tether (USDT) accused of “illegal and deceptive” practices

Investors have filed a class action lawsuit against stabelcoin issuer Tether (USDT). They accused the company of “immoral, unethical, discriminatory and unfair” practices.

Plaintiffs Matthew Anderson and Shawn Dolifka challenged Tether’s claims that USDT is fully asset-backed. According to them, the company misled investors or they would never have bought the stabelcoin.

In the complaint, the plaintiffs cited proceedings involving the firm and its Bitfinex affiliate.

Tether called the complaint “another pointless lawsuit”

Anderson and Dolifka demanded that Tether be ordered to pay treble damages, fines and compensation for identity theft, and legal fees.

Tether called the complaint “another pointless lawsuit” that was filed in search of “a large payout on completely unsubstantiated claims.”

“The shameless money grab for which this lawsuit is a textbook example will never be worthy of paying even a single satoshi to settle the dispute. Bitfinex and Tether will choose an aggressive line of defense in the litigation and will fight off the lawsuit and then take action to recover damages,” the statement said.

In February, the companies reached a settlement with the New York State Attorney General’s Office in a financial transactions case involving the loss of $850 million. Bitfinex and Tether agreed to pay $18.5 million.

A settlement with the U.S. Futures Trading Commission in October cost the companies more – a civil penalty of $42.5 million.

In September, the court dismissed half of the claims against Tether and Bitfinex in an earlier $1.4 trillion class action lawsuit.

The plaintiffs pointed to these lawsuits, among other things.

USDT is 100% asset-backed according to a report

As a reminder, in August, Tether released a report from audit firm Moore Cayman, which confirmed that USDT is 100% asset-backed. However, the share of cash and bank deposits in the reserves was 10%, and 49% of them consisted of commercial securities.

Bloomberg found short-term loans to large Chinese companies and loans to cryptolanding platforms as collateral for the stabelcoin.

Research firm Hindenburg Research questioned the veracity of Tether’s reserves and offered a $1 million reward for revealing previously unknown information about them.