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Trump names a Tether partner as a leader of his transition team, Binance’s detained compliance executive begs for help in Nigeria, and a new report identifies the "most lucrative" crypto scams.
The CEO of a key custodian of Tether’s reserve assets has been named as co-chair of Donald Trump’s transition team.
Howard Lutnick, CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, is set to become a key figure in the new administration if Trump wins the US presidential election in November.
In August, Trump announced the formation of Trump Vance 2025 Transition, Inc., a new 501(c)(4) organisation created to prepare the transition.
The transition team is responsible for selecting more than 4,000 presidential appointees, including more than 1,200 who require Senate confirmation.
It also engages in policy development and legislative agenda-setting based on the presidential campaign platform.
In addition, the transition team will typically evaluate how the US government’s 439 federal agencies can contribute to the President’s management and policy agenda.
In a statement to mark the launch of the transition team, Trump said that his administration will deliver on the “bold promises” that he has made during the campaign.
“The 2024 GOP Platform to Make America Great Again is a forward-looking agenda that will deliver safety, prosperity and freedom for the American people,” he said.
“We will restore strength, competence and common sense to the Oval Office. I have absolute confidence the Trump-Vance Administration will be ready to govern effectively on Day One.”
Alongside Lutnick, Trump also named former WWE wrestler Linda McMahon as the second co-chair of the transition team.
McMahon, whose husband Vince was a co-founder of WWE, also served in Trump’s Cabinet as administrator of the small business administration during his first term in office.
Trump’s running mate, Senator JD Vance, was named as an honorary chair of the transition team, as were Trump’s two eldest sons, Donald Jr. and Eric.
Who is Lutnick and what is his connection to Tether?
Cantor Fitzgerald, a New York-based investment management firm, has been known to be a custodian of Tether’s Treasury bills since February 2023, following an exposé by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ).
In a subsequent interview with CBNC, Lutnick confirmed the accuracy of the report, saying of Tether: “I hold their Treasuries, and they have a lot of Treasuries. I’m a big fan of Tether’s.”
Since then, Lutnick has been increasingly vocal about Cantor’s relationship with Tether, although he has refrained from providing further information about the company’s reserves that might satisfy its critics.
In January, at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Lutnick dismissed doubts as to whether Tether has sufficient backing for its $118bn of stablecoins.
“From what we've seen — and we did a lot of work — they have the money they say they have,” said Lutnick.
“I've seen a whole lot and the firm has seen a whole lot, and they have the money. There's always been a lot of talk — ‘Do they have it or not?’ — so I'm with you guys saying we’ve seen it and they have it.”
In Tether’s latest attestation report, for Q2 2024, the stablecoin issuer reported holdings of $80.9bn in US Treasury bills.
If true, this would make Tether one of the largest holders of T-bills in the world — larger than all but around 20 of the world’s governments.
However, Tether has never undergone a full audit of its accounts, despite having been in business since 2014.
It also chooses not to publish the CUSIP numbers of its purported Treasury bills, which would allow third parties to easily verify their existence.
Detained Binance exec cries for help in Nigeria
New footage has emerged this week showing Binance’s head of financial crime compliance suffering while attending court in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja.
Tigran Gambryan, 40, has been detained in Nigeria since February, where he is currently facing criminal charges of money laundering.
In the video, the compliance exec can be seen limping through a corridor using a single crutch, crying for help and complaining that he was denied a request for a wheelchair.
"I'm not okay,” he says. “This is f*cked up." He points to one of the guards and says that he was “told not to help me”.
“Why couldn't I use a goddamn wheelchair? This is a show. I'm a f*cking innocent person,” he says. “Why are you doing this to me?"
Gambaryan's lawyers have filed a new application for bail on medical grounds, due to illnesses he has suffered while in detention, including malaria, pneumonia and complications from a herniated disc.
His trial has been adjourned until October, and he continues to be held at Nigeria’s notorious Kuje prison, where convicted Islamic State and Boko Haram fighters are also imprisoned.
Pig butchering — the 'most lucrative' crypto scam
A new report from blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis has found that pig butchering was the most lucrative type of crypto scam in H1 2024.
According to on- and off-chain data analysed by Chainalysis, crypto scammers are moving away from “elaborate ponzi schemes” towards shorter scams using pig butchering techniques.
Pig butchering refers to scams where the victim is “fattened up” to extract the highest possible returns from them.
This usually involves building a romantic relationship over time with the victim via text message or dating apps, followed by enticements to send money to a fake investment platform.
Chainalysis found that the average lifespan of a crypto scam has fallen from 271 days in 2020 to 42 days in 2024.
Wallets associated with KK Park, a pig butchering compound in Myanmar, have already amassed more than $100m in scammed funds — more than any other scam network identified by Chainalysis.
