Tether Faces Legal Action for Alleged Unlawful USDT Freeze
- Two Thai businessmen filed a lawsuit against Tether in New York, claiming the company froze $42.4 million worth of USDT.
- The freeze was allegedly done at the informal request of a Homeland Security Investigations agent without a legal warrant.
- A federal magistrate judge later issued a seizure warrant, which did not retroactively authorize the initial freeze or allow token destruction before final judgment.
- Tether’s administrative functions allow it to blacklist addresses on networks like Ethereum, rendering tokens non-transferable.
- Tether collaborates with over 340 law enforcement agencies globally, having frozen more than $4.4 billion in assets linked to unlawful activity.
Nutthawat Rukthammachalern and Natthawat Kasamvilas claim they acquired the USDT through secondary-market transactions and never agreed to Tether’s terms directly. They are seeking damages and access restoration for their frozen assets.
The lawsuit challenges Tether’s actions as unauthorized, questioning the company’s compliance with legal protocols when freezing and destroying digital assets. (Source)
