The hypocrisy. Tether was pushed to the "darkest corners of the financial system" *because* of regulators. It seems they tried their best to remain solvent and didn't steal cash reserves. But regulators made their life hard at every turn. If you care about protecting USDT holders, maybe stop interfering with their operations and stop seizing their funds? And now, they have to submit regular reports to the NY regulators while being banned from doing any business in NY? I doubt many USDT holders are very happy today about the NYAG's attempts to protect them.
> Bitfinex and Tether recklessly and unlawfully covered-up massive financial losses to keep their scheme going and protect their bottom lines,” said Attorney General James. “Tether’s claims that its virtual currency was fully backed by U.S. dollars at all times was a lie
Are you claiming this is false and they paid the 18.5m penalty for not lying about USD reserves?
Part of their USD reserves were frozen by regulators in Poland and Portugal. It is debatable whether having funds frozen by regulators can be de accurately described as sustaining "massive financial losses". Sure, they could have been more transparent about what was going on. But so far, it seems that all their issues originate from regulators making it impossible for them to run a legitimate business, not fraudulent intentions (which is what they are often accused of).
Your statements don't align with the claims in the article. It says they lost (as in, "where is it") almost a billion dollars and said they still had it, while knowing they didn't.
Bad situation but honest: Legal.
Bad situation but dishonest: Illegal.
The announcement by the Attorney General is quite biased and doesn't tell the full story. For a better understanding, I invite you to read the official settlement agreement[0] and Tether's (obviously biased) take on it[1]. It seems that Bitfinex funds were frozen by government agencies and that Tether temporarily provided a line of credit to Bitfinex while awaiting for the funds to be released. The line of credit was repaid in full as of January 2021, according to the settlement.
I'm not saying Bitfinex/Tether acted irreproachably, they surely could have been a bit more transparent about what was going on. But I have some empathy for them. They wouldn't have been put in that difficult situation if it weren't for the insanely restrictive regulatory environment that made it impossible for them to obtain banking relationships.
