Tether’s early buyers included firms later tied to financial crime

The record

Tether, the issuer of the USDT stablecoin, has told US lawmakers that it checks its customers as carefully as established banks do. An investigation published on 31 August 2026 by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), part of its Coin Laundry series, suggests that several of the company’s early direct buyers were later caught up in sanctions cases, criminal charges or regulatory penalties.

ICIJ based its findings on a set of Tether documents it obtained, including a sales record listing buyers in 2019 and 2020. Over that period, the amount of USDT in circulation grew from under $2 billion to more than $20 billion. Because the records contain no wallet addresses, ICIJ matched dozens of sales to public blockchain data.

Two Hong Kong shells and North Korea

The largest link concerns Cheng Hung Man, a Hong Kong-based over-the-counter crypto trader. According to ICIJ, Lucky DC Trade Pty Limited bought nearly $47 million in USDT directly from Tether in 2020, and Tomorrow Good Limited bought more than $66 million in 2019.

The Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team, set up by 11 states after Russia vetoed the renewal of the UN panel of experts on North Korea, states in its October 2025 report that Cheng used his connections to both companies “to access banking services and launder cryptocurrency proceeds” for North Korean cyber actors. In April 2023 a federal indictment charging Cheng, a North Korean bank representative and a Chinese trader was unsealed in Washington, and the US Treasury sanctioned all three. Treasury said Cheng used front companies to help North Korean actors reach the US financial system. ICIJ adds that Tomorrow Good was named in a 2024 indictment of Sinaloa cartel members.

Other early customers

ICIJ lists further buyers whose names later appeared in enforcement actions. Nikita Krasnov, a Russian who bought about $1.16 million in 2020, was sanctioned by US authorities in 2024 over a sanctions-evasion scheme serving Russian elites. Ianis Antropenko, indicted in 2024 on federal ransomware charges, pleaded guilty earlier in 2026 and agreed to forfeit $1.4 million in USDT and other crypto. Alameda Research, the trading firm tied to FTX, bought more than 4.1 billion USDT over 17 months; FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried is serving a 25-year sentence.

Zhao Dong, who bought about $1.5 million in eight days in 2020, was later convicted of money laundering in China. AP Capital Investment, which bought $23.7 million, was cited in a Vietnamese criminal case; its lawyer says the company’s case was suspended for lack of evidence. Nexo Capital agreed in 2023 to pay $45 million to US regulators and says the matter had no bearing on its Tether purchases.

The responses

Tether did not respond to ICIJ’s requests for comment on this story. It says it subjects direct customers to strict vetting, and it earlier told ICIJ: “Tether has a long record of voluntarily assisting law enforcement agencies with investigations involving illicit activity.” The MSMT report notes that Tether can freeze USDT balances and cooperates with law enforcement to freeze transactions that violate UN sanctions. Attempts to reach Krasnov were unsuccessful, ICIJ reports.

Questions that remain unanswered

What checks did Tether run on these buyers at the time of each sale, and did any later finding prompt a review? Were USDT bought from Tether used in the conduct that authorities later described, or were the purchases unrelated? And how many of the buyers ICIJ could not match to blockchain data raise similar concerns?

Most of the cases described here post-date the purchases, and none of the authorities cited accuses Tether of wrongdoing in these sales. Some of the cases have been resolved through settlements or pleas; others are pending or closed. The account rests on ICIJ’s reporting and on the official documents listed below.

Based on reporting from: ICIJ · Coin Laundry · 31 August 2026; Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team · Report MSMT/2025/2 on DPRK cyber and IT worker activities · 22 October 2025; US Department of State · Media note on the MSMT report · 12 January 2026; US Attorney’s Office, District of Columbia · Indictments unsealed against Sim Hyon Sop, Wu Huihui and Cheng Hung Man · 24 April 2023; US Treasury · OFAC designations of Sim Hyon Sop, Wu Huihui and Cheng Hung Man · 24 April 2023.