Leading stablecoin issuer Tether has once again slammed mainstream media, The Wall Street Journal, for publishing a report that claimed the firm and its affiliates falsified documents and shell companies to open bank accounts about four years ago.
WSJ published the report on Friday, quoting emails and documents it received from Stephen Moore, one of the owners of Tether Holdings Ltd.
The Allegations
The WSJ claimed the incident happened after Crypto Capital Corp. went underwater four years ago, which was crypto’s premier shadow bank for years before authorities shut it down in 2018. It had ties with multiple crypto entities, including Tether and its sister company Bitfinex.
The WSJ alleged that Tether and its backers falsified invoices and contracts in late 2018 when they lost access to the global banking system, and the faked documents allowed them to create new bank accounts.
“One of those intermediaries, a major tether trader in China, was trying to ‘circumvent the banking system by providing fake sales invoices and contracts for each deposit and withdrawal…’ Ultimately, the companies (Tether and Bitfinex) were able to open at least nine new bank accounts for shell companies in Asia over nine days in October 2018,” the report said.
Tether’s Response
On Friday afternoon, Tether’s chief technology officer Paolo Ardoino blasted the media house on Twitter, saying the article was filled with a “ton of misinformation and inaccuracies.”
Shortly after Ardoino’s comments, Tether published an official response to the report, noting that it was nothing but more FUD from WSJ. The stablecoin issuer added the allegations from the media publication were inaccurate and misleading.
“These unfair attacks will not distract us from continuing with those efforts and offering the most liquid and reliable stablecoin experience, which the market has clearly recognized by making us the leaders in the industry,” Tether said.
It is worth noting that this is not the first time Tether has responded to WSJ for disinformation and FUD. In December, the stablecoin company responded to a WSJ report that called out Tether for having potentially unreliable reserves for its secured loans.
Tether denied the allegations, saying its loans were overcollateralized by “extremely liquid” assets and planned to reduce the secured loans to zero by the end of this year.
Crypto Banking Issue
Meanwhile, the WSJ report came at a time when crypto firms are reliving how difficult it is for them to access banking services.
On Thursday, crypto-friendly bank Silvergate Capital Corporation became the subject of intense scrutiny amid operational issues. This caused several crypto firms, including Coinbase and Kraken, to abandon the bank and its service.
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