According to the presiding Judge, Katherine Polk Failla, “[The] Plaintiffs plainly explain why they need this information: to assess the backing of USDT with US dollars.”
A U.S. Judge in New York has ordered Tether to produce financial records relating to the backing of its USDT. The order was issued as part of a lawsuit alleging that Tether conspired to issue USDT in a campaign to pump the price of Bitcoin.
The court filing says,
“RFP 29 seeks any and all general ledgers, balance sheets, income statements, cash-flow statements, and profit and loss statements, (…) as they relate to the backing of USDT (financial records RFPs [requests for proposal]) and crypto commodities transactions (transactions RFPs).”
Furthermore, the stablecoin issuer will produce any records of trades or transfers of digital currency or other stablecoins by Tether. It will also produce data about the trades' timeline and details about the accounts it holds at crypto exchanges Bitfinex, Bittrex, and Poloniex.
However, Tether's attorneys attempted to overturn the order to release its financial records, calling it "incredibly overboard" and "unduly burdensome." But the judge disagreed, writing that the "documents Plaintiffs seek are undoubtedly important."
According to the presiding Judge, Katherine Polk Failla,
“[The] Plaintiffs plainly explain why they need this information: to assess the backing of USDT with US dollars.”
She further added,
“The documents sought in the transactions RFPs appear to go to one of the Plaintiffs' core allegations: that the … Defendants engaged in crypto commodities transactions using unbacked USDT, and that those transactions "were strategically timed to inflate the market."
