Senate Democrat’s Probe into Tether Payments to Bo Hines’ Firm Widens

Tether said it is aware of the allegations at the center of Senator Blumenthal’s letter, according to a statement from the company.

The statement said that external counsel had previously conducted an in-depth internal investigation into the matter and found no evidence of wrongdoing.

CoinDesk had first reported that Hines’ company — a firm with little track record or experience in politics — was making millions of dollars as the main campaign-advertising provider for a political action committee associated with Tether.

Hines’ family firm, Nxum, has recently hired another official who previously worked as a White House crypto adviser, Harry Jung. The office that advised the former president on crypto issues has since been vacant, following the departure of Patrick Witt, who had replaced Hines as its executive director.

Blumenthal has focused significant attention on crypto, including on the former president’s memecoin, crypto backers of his projects, World Liberty Financial, activities at Binance, and especially Tether. He issued a report on its financial connections to Iran and more recently demanded answers about Tether’s connection to its U.S. financial partner, Cantor Fitzgerald.

Tether’s Ardoino criticized the senator’s work this week, saying Blumenthal ignored important information and shared his report with the press before giving the company a chance to respond.

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