WSJ reporting that trump transition team chairman Howard Lutnick took a 5% ownership stake in Tether, one of the preferred money laundering enterprises for every kind of international criminal (or at least his company Cantor Fitzgerald did).
Some other highlights:
“Lutnick restricted the number of employees who had contact with Tether to a handful of top executives.”
The CEO Devasini has flown to meet with Lutnick in Bukele’s El Salvador, where Tether’s partner exchange Bitfinex is also serving as something like an investment bank helping companies raise capital (or trying to - so far the capital raises facilitated by Bitfinex have mostly been flops).
“Devasini, an Italian who has refused to travel to the U.S. for fear of arrest, according to some business associates, sees Lutnick as a shield against the efforts of American authorities and rivals to disrupt his lucrative business.”
Lutnick’s son Brandon Lutnick had an internship with Tether in 2023 in the Swiss town of Lugano.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime branded the stablecoin a “preferred choice” for money launderers in a report.
