NY AG’s Tether/Bitfinex probe shouldn’t leave lasting scars
The New York Attorney General’s recent $18.5 million settlement with cryptocurrency companies Bitfinex and Tether is hardly the attack on the fledgling sector’s fundamentals some people think it is, Ashley Ebersole suggests.
Mr. Ebersole is a former SEC regulatory and enforcement attorney who is now a partner with the Washington law firm Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner. We recently spoke about the settlement, which concluded an inquiry into an alleged coverup of $850 million in losses of funds held by a payment processor.
In a 2019 filing, the attorney general’s office alleged Bitfinex handed $850 million to the Panamanian entity Crypto Capital without disclosing it to investors. Bitfinex and Tether executives then allegedly engaged in a series of transactions that opened up Tether’s cash reserves to Bitfinex.