The US Justice Department has indicted and taken into custody a member of the Cartier jewelry family for allegedly laundering money from drug trafficking using tether (USDT).
Maximilien de Hoop Cartier, a direct descendant of Louis Cartier, got arrested in Miami for supposedly working with a Colombian drug cartel.
Along with five Colombians, he attempted to smuggle 100 kilos of cocaine and launder hundreds of millions of dollars, mainly through over-the-counter USDT trades. It’s reported that he managed to launder around 14.5 million USDT before getting caught.
Currently, Cartier is being held in a detention center in Miami, while his accomplices are locked up in Colombia.
To execute his plan, Cartier supposedly ran shell companies and falsely told banks that they were involved in software and tech. He was using these companies' accounts as unlicensed money transmitters, according to the indictment.
By using USDT, along with dollars, pesos, and other currencies, Cartier laundered a massive amount of cash that came from criminal activities.
Are you implying that the article writer is also only implying that the enemy is USDT or are you implying that USDT is the main enemy? If anyone is implying that USDT is the enemy, does this also cause them to imply that bitcoin or gold is the enemy if this Cartier heir used bitcoin or gold to launder their money?
I also read protos.com articles, however, I have noticed that much of their articles are forcing to write headshaking storylines about the cryptospace with much fud.
In the U.S., there has long been a struggle for interens between the largest issuers of USDT and USDC steiblcoins.
USDT is owned by a US company and they try to work very transparently in accordance with US laws.
Tether holdings limited is registered in the Cayman Islands and it is not very clear who the beneficiaries of this company are.
Nope! The main enemy is greed and stupidity!
Everyone knows that USDT is a centralised cryptocurrency. The issuer company controls the blockchain. The company can easily block or freeze anyone's funds if requested by the enforcement agencies. So trying to laundering money using USDT, is stupidity.
Secondly, why a person associated with such a global brand worth 12 billion USD, need to do such illegal acts? That's greed!
USDT is not enemy here!
Okay agreed! The main enemy of the government and their backers that have invested in Circle the issuer USDC is certainly Tether USDT. I shared a news article from weeks before about a representative from Circle who was begging for the government to crack down on Tether and USDT. This is very headshaking because of speculations that USDT in circulation is not 100% backed by real assets and that the people behind Tether work with moneylaunderers, none of the accusations have real evidence hehehehee.
It was a stupid thing for them to launder USDT, they're basically just using a digital dollar with that one. No wonder that their money laundering scheme was foiled, the only saving grace was those shell companies and the lie about running a software and tech company. Mighty stupid of these people to do this heinous scheme, this is the very reason why the innocent people get caught in the crossfire of the authority's battle against money laundering, now we can't enjoy crypto more than ever before because of these evil people doing this thing. Good thing that they've got arrested though, it's high time that the rich would feel the hammer of justice.
Of course, Circles main competitor is Tether holdings limited and so far Tether is in the lead because they were the first.
Both companies back most of the American treasuries, which means they are very dependent on the American system. If suddenly the assets of one of the companies are blocked in the United States due to sanctions, then the stablecoin suddenly loses its peg to the dollar and the entire crypto market plunges into chaos.
On the one hand, Circle is comfortable with such a competitor, because criminals mainly choose Tether stablecoins.
Money whether decentralized or centralized could be used by criminals to engage in illegal activities. But I get your point, the government usually showcases stablecoins as a currency that reduces criminal transactions.
Shell companies are usually used to avoid tax and hide wealth. These criminals assume that using these companies and USDT will complicate the process of tracking the criminal transactions. I just wonder what an heir to a billion-dollar company will still be engaging in criminal activities. This is proof that greedy people are never contended.
To answer the question why he's still wants to do crime despite being a billionaire's son already is probably for the reason that he thinks that he can get away with it and he's probably the type of guy to be buddy buddy with high profile drug addicts and drug dealers and with those scums in your circle, you will eventually succumb to the evil influence of those types of people. The money thing, it's probably not in cold hard cash so even if he's worth a billion, it's probably not in cash, and the money is from daddy anyway and there was probably a point in his life that daddy didn't want to give him any money. They'll probably not mess with USDT though, it's a centralized stablecoin and you've said it already, they can trace wherever the USDT goes.
LOL! This must be the Cartier who was not given any inheritance or might have been removed from that inheritance list. It is hard to understand why someone from a rich family would indulge in the drug trade. The safest way to hide illegal money is to convert it into USDT.
Earlier this year, the UN suggested USDT as a cryptocurrency for illegal activities and now we are getting evidence. That is the problem that USDT will face in the future and will have to come up with concrete solutions. They are already complying with the government now they will make some amends that will end their dominance as a stablecoin.
When laundering money what currency is used is secondary to what the channel is. If someone is using an artwork as a laundering means, it doesn't matter if the payment is made through fiat, gold or real estate, what matters is the legal means that authenticates the payment.
If you're going to be technical on best ways to hide illegal money, fiat is top of that list with USDT way low on the list.
However, Tether has been holding much of their reserves in gold, bitcoin and US t-bills. The Federal Reserve will never block t-bills because this would make other big holders of this fearful and dump their reserves. This will certainly kill the American debt market. If the Biden administration will force the Federal Reserve to do this, we can be quite certain that they are the most stupid politicians to run a government hehhehehe.
Tether also made $1 billion from t-bills.
Tethers (CRYPTO: USDT) fourth-quarter attestation report recorded significant profits, with a substantial portion coming from the company's gold and Bitcoin holdings. The stablecoin issuer is looking forward to a promising 2024.
What Happened: Tether reported a profit of $2.85 billion for the final quarter of 2023 for an annual profit of $6.2 billion, according to its fourth-quarter attestation report. Net operational profit from U.S. T-bill interests yielded $1 billion, with $1.85 billion coming from gold and Bitcoin holdings.
Tether decided to keep most of its profits within stablecoin reserves to ensure resiliency. Furthermore, the company has achieved its goal of removing the risk of secured loans from the token reserves.
Source https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/tether-books-$2.85b-quarterly-profit:-we-look-forward-to-great-2024-says-ceo-paolo-ardoino
Wow, a billionaire getting caught doing tax fraud? Shocker. It's such a stupid thing for this heir to do this stupid thing, you've already got billions in your name maybe even a company in the future so why dabble with drugs and money laundering? This person is clearly bored out of his mind, no way you'd be doing this if you've got something going on with your life and that you're busy with something that you're passionate about.
https://tether.io/news/tether-releases-q1-2024-attestation-reports-record-breaking-4-52-billion-profit-highest-treasury-bill-ownership-percentage-ever-total-group-equity-of-11-37-billion/
The chart below shows a visualization of the Reserves as of 31 March 2024.
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Tether is about to become one of the big holders of treasuries. Other holders have been selling treasuries for a long time, such as China, but not all can do so.
Tether's assets are now part of the large US government debt, which is unrealistic to give away.
@zasad@. Unrealistic? Are you telling me that this information is fake? Why would they do this? I reckon that this type of behavior would certainly cause regulators to seize their domains and imprison their executives.
Similar to you, before I was a Tether, USDT skeptic. However, it has been more then 4 years since I have created my Big Short thread and Tether only has become bigger and more profitable, more accepted and stronger.
Do you really think that someone will repay this national debt?
https://www.usdebtclock.org/
I am sure that the American budget benefits from Tether printing new billions and buying 90% of the amount from each billion American Treasuries.
The crypto market is growing, tokenized assets are growing, and the most popular stablecoins on the market are USDT and USDC, so I continue to expect an increase in their capitalization.
I am not implying anything about the national debt of America. I am asking if Tether would post fake information about their assets that are backing USDT when they might be under strict regulatory inspection. They can have their domain seized if they are posting fake information. This is similar to the argument that Binance is not a safe exchange after CZ's imprisonment. I have argued that Binance is presently the safest exchange because the regulators' eyes are always on them.
Tether's reports are prepared by "BDO, the world's leading independent accounting firm." Those who publish false information will be criminally prosecuted.
For me, the safest exchange is Uniswap.I can't call centralized exchange safe, because I can't fully dispose of my coins.