1 year ago
Tether has announced the “largest-ever frost of USDT successful history.” In collaboration with crypto speech Okx, Tether froze $225 cardinal successful USDT pursuing an probe by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). The tokens were allegedly linked to an planetary quality trafficking syndicate successful Southeast Asia liable for a planetary “pig butchering” crypto scam.
$225M successful USDT Frozen by Tether
Leading stablecoin issuer Tether and crypto speech Okx announced Monday that they person collaborated with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) “in an probe that led to Tether proactively and voluntarily freezing astir 225 cardinal successful USDT tokens successful outer self-custodied wallets.” The wallets are “linked to an planetary quality trafficking syndicate successful Southeast Asia liable for a planetary ‘pig butchering’ romance scam,” the crypto companies detailed, adding:
The associated probe was conducted utilizing tools from blockchain investigation steadfast Chainalysis, and the enactment by Tether represents the largest-ever frost of USDT successful history.
After months of investigation, Tether, Okx, and instrumentality enforcement agencies, including the U.S. DOJ, identified the locations of the illicit funds, the announcement explains, noting: “These actions prompted the initiation of a frost petition by the United States Secret Service and a voluntary frost by Tether.”
According to an investigation by Lookonchain, Tether froze 37 wallets linked to a quality trafficking radical connected Monday. These wallets had been moving USDT to crypto speech Okx.
Tether froze ~225M $USDT (37 wallets) linked to a quality trafficking radical 1 hr ago.
These wallets had been moving $USDT earlier being frozen, with astir of the $USDT being transferred to #OKX.
Check frozen TX here.https://t.co/TlfFJvpgiW pic.twitter.com/vEMTd3YzBq
— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) November 20, 2023
Tether claimed: “The frozen wallets are connected the secondary marketplace and are not associated with Tether’s customers.” The crypto steadfast emphasized: “To the grade lawful wallets were captured by this operation, Tether volition enactment rapidly with instrumentality enforcement and the owners of those wallets to unfreeze them, arsenic appropriate.” In October, Tether froze 32 addresses linked to suspicious operations successful Israel and Ukraine.
Pig butchering crypto scams person been connected the emergence globally. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has repeatedly warned astir these scams. In August past year, U.S. authorities said that this benignant of scam is becoming alarmingly popular. In April this year, the U.S. Department of Justice seized cryptocurrency worthy $112 cardinal successful a pig butchering scam crackdown. Last week, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) warned that U.S. taxpayers are presently the astir targeted colonisation for pig butchering schemes.
What bash you deliberation astir Tether freezing 225 cardinal USDT allegedly progressive successful “pig butchering” crypto scams? Let america cognize successful the comments conception below.
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