Tether’s (USDT) request to the state of New York’s supreme court for authorization to prevent the public from examining documents that describe the structure of Tether’s reserves during the last several years was denied.
Crypto Whale tweeted the records on May 17 and specifically uploaded the ruling and order on motion with the ‘leave to file’ decision.
BREAKING: New York Supreme Court has REJECTED Tether’s petition to block the public from receiving documents detailing the composition of Tether’s reserves over the past few years.#Tether #Bitfinex $USDT pic.twitter.com/14ijOZnws7
— WhaleWire (@WhaleWire) May 16, 2022
Attorneys for the stablecoin Tether and its parent company, iFinex, retaliated against CoinDesk back February 2022 by filing a lawsuit against the website with the New York attorney general’s office (NYAG), claiming: “The records at issue here include Bitfinex and Tether’s closely guarded, non-public internal records that were developed at considerable expense and could not be acquired by its competitors other than through this FOIL request.”
As per CoinMarketCap data, Tether (USDT) is the largest stablecoin issuer in the cryptocurrency market, with over $74 billion in tokens in existence and contributing to nearly half of all Bitcoin (BTC) transactions on centralized exchange platforms.
The firm paid the (NYAG) $18.5 million in 2021 for its part in the attempt Bitfinex to conceal an $850 million gap in its payment processor’s finances, Crypto Capital Corp. Bitfinex and Tether “recklessly and unlawfully covered up massive financial losses to keep their scheme going and protect their bottom lines,” said Letitia James, the New York Attorney General during a press release.
Tether and Bitfinex should also file asset disclosures every quarter. CoinDesk asked for the reserves under FOIL after Tether disclosed its financial sheet to the NYAG. Tether, on the other hand, sued the NYAG’s office in August, claiming that releasing its financial statement would “tilt the competing playing field against Tether.” Tether made a statement on February 4 saying that “The settlement specified what information should be disclosed publicly (such as a breakdown of Tether’s reserves by category) and what should be disclosed privately to NYAG (such as particular investment details). The private aspects are those that no business would publish for the competition to exploit.”
Tether and iFinex, which also controls the crypto exchange platform Bitfinex, filed a petition with the New York State Supreme Court in August to block the attorney general of the state from disclosing its reserves to CoinDesk.