In April 2022, the U.S. national Reginald Fowler pled guilty to bank fraud and the operation of an unlicensed money-transmitting business in connection with his Crypto Capital, a payment processor that provided fiat-currency banking services to various crypto exchanges through a series of bank accounts opened under false pretenses. Prosecutors asked the court to impose a sentence of at least 82 months prison time, a money judgment of $740 million, and a restitution of $53 million.
Tether (USDT) is a cryptocurrency pegged to the US dollar and is often used as a stablecoin. A network of companies around Tether Holdings Ltd and Tether Limited operates the scheme. The ownership structure has been the subject of significant speculation and controversy. Online gaming entrepreneur Brock Pierce and Italian plastic surgeon Giancarlo Devasini established Tether Holdings in 2014 in the British Virgin Islands. The Tether scheme is closely intertwined with crypto exchange BitFinex.
The superseded indictment against U.S. citizen Reginald Fowler and his Israeli partner Ravid Yosef was unsealed in early 2019. They are charged with operating an unlicensed money transmitting business, bank fraud, and wire fraud. All this is said to have been done on the basis of cryptocurrencies and hundreds of millions of dollars are said to have been moved around the globe. This case is closely connected to the Bitfinex Case around a lawsuit.