Top Democrat on Senate investigations panel presses Cantor Fitzgerald over a Tether stake put at $10 billion

A senior Senate Democrat has turned his investigation of Tether toward the Wall Street firm that holds its reserves. Senator Richard Blumenthal, the ranking member of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, sent a 13-part request for documents and information on Thursday to Brandon Lutnick, the chairman of Cantor Fitzgerald.

Brandon Lutnick is the son of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who led Cantor before he joined the Trump administration. The letter says Howard Lutnick has reportedly made more than $250 million since President Trump returned to office, including a $192 million distribution from Cantor, and that the firm's 5% stake in Tether has risen from $600 million to an estimated $10 billion. It adds that Cantor collects tens of millions of dollars a year from the assets it holds for Tether.

"Cantor Fitzgerald has benefited alongside Lutnick in the last two years, in large part due to its partnership with Tether," Blumenthal wrote.

The subcommittee's Democratic staff published a report on September 28 that said Iran-linked actors increasingly rely on Tether's USDT. The new letter asks what Cantor has done to investigate those allegations, whether it requires independent audits of Tether, when it would end a business relationship, and for communications involving Howard Lutnick about Tether, including since he left the firm.

Tether has said it has worked with law enforcement for years and has frozen nearly $550 million in Iran-linked USDT this year, Cointelegraph reported. Neither Cantor nor Tether immediately responded to requests for comment.

What comes next: the letter asks for answers by October 23. Blumenthal is in the minority and has limited power to compel them, CoinDesk noted. That could change if Democrats win the Senate in the November 3 midterm elections.