Griffin, responding to Hoegner’s statement, said neither he nor Shams “have any personal or financial connections to the lawsuit” that the Tether general counsel mentioned.
“If there is sufficient data that Bitfinex has that can prove their claims they should release such data to the public to analyze,” Griffin said in a statement.
Both Bitfinex and Tether received subpoenas in 2017 from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Bloomberg reported at the time. The Justice Department has since opened a criminal investigation into whether Tether was being used to manipulate Bitcoin. Neither the CFTC nor federal U.S. prosecutors have accused Bitfinex or Tether of any wrongdoing.
$850 Million
In her lawsuit, New York Attorney General Letitia James said Tether and Bitfinex executives participated in a cover-up after about $850 million in client and corporate funds allegedly went missing. Bitfinex has said that James’ suit is riddled with erroneous assertions.
At the heart of James’ claims is Crypto Capital Corp., a Panamanian payment processing firm that Bitfinex used to allow some customers to deposit money on the exchange.
In late October, a Crypto Capital official was arrested as part of a Polish probe for allegedly laundering the proceeds of drug sales for an international crime group. The suspect, in according with Polish rules preventing the release of full names, was identified as Ivan M.L. by the county’s National Prosecutor’s Office. Polish media, including Radio RMF, said the suspect is Ivan Manuel Molina Lee, Crypto Capital’s president. Poland deported him to Greece.
Following the arrest, Tether’s Hoegner said in a statement to Bloomberg that “Bitfinex is the victim of a fraud and is and is making its position clear to the relevant authorities, including those in Poland and the United States.”
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.