Howard Lutnick, the Cantor Fitzgerald CEO who’s been tapped to run the US Commerce Department, has in recent years become a prominent cheerleader for Tether, the company behind one of the world’s biggest crypto assets. But even by the standards of crypto — an alternative financial ecosystem in which some of the biggest frauds of the 21st century have taken place — Tether is a murky entity that has been dogged by investors’ concerns about its operations.
” Tether didn’t immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment. That was hardly the first crisis PR moment for the company, though. For years, questions had swirled about where Tether was stashing its billions of dollars in reserves. In 2021, Tether paid $61 million to New York authorities to settle charges that it was misrepresenting the assets that back its stablecoin . Questions have lingered in crypto circles about Tether’s reserves.