Tether freezes $225m #USDT tied to DoJ trafficking syndicate investigation

The funds seized by Tether were linked to a “pig butchering” scam that cost U.S. citizens $3.3 billion in 2022, according to the #FBI . 

Stablecoin issuer Tether reported freezing $225 million worth of its cryptocurrency #USDT in a #US . Department of Justice (DOJ) probe targeting an international human trafficking ring operating in Southeast Asia.

Per the FBI, the “pig butchering” #scam involved a romantic scheme set up by scammers who engineered fake crypto exchanges to steal billions from American users. The theft usually started with a “Hi” text and ended with victims trading on platforms operated by this syndicate.

Blockchain analytics provider Peckshield pointed to at least six blacklisted wallet addresses. One wallet held as much as $87 million in Tether’s U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin. These funds were held in external self-custodial wallets, meaning they did not belong to Tether customers.

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