Texas company sues Tether, alleging illegal freezing of $44.7 million USDT and loss of significant investment opportunities

Jinse Finance reported that in April this year, stablecoin issuer Tether froze $44.7 million USDT at the request of Bulgarian police. Now, Texas-based consulting firm Riverstone has officially filed a lawsuit, accusing Tether of illegally freezing its tokens and causing it to miss significant investment opportunities. According to the complaint filed with the Southern District Court of New York, on April 4, Tether froze assets in eight offline wallets controlled by Riverstone. The company claims that Tether froze the assets solely based on a request from a local Bulgarian police station, which constitutes a "procedural flaw" as it did not follow the formal process stipulated by the "Bulgarian International Judicial Assistance Treaty," which requires information exchange through central authorities and diplomatic channels. The complaint states that when Riverstone contacted Tether, it was told to communicate directly with the Bulgarian police, but the police never responded. Currently, the circulation of Tether stablecoins exceeds $180 billions, and as of September 15, Tether has cooperated with global law enforcement agencies to freeze $3.2 billions USDT.