Tether’s bank partner Britannia sued over $1B deposit: Report
Tether’s bank partner Britannia Financial is reportedly facing a lawsuit over claims it failed to pay the full price of revenue-generating assets allegedly related to a large deposit from Tether.
Arbitral International, a company registered in the British Virgin Islands, has sued Britannia over a $1 billion deposit from Tether, the Financial Times reported on Nov. 21, citing court documents filed in the High Court of Justice in London in 2023.
The lawsuit relates to Britannia’s acquisition of Arbitral’s Bahamas-based brokerage business known as Arbitral Securities. Britannia announced the acquisition in October 2021, integrating the brokerage into its own brokerage, Britannia Securities.
According to the new report, Britannia and Arbitral agreed that Britannia Financial would pay an extra sum based on the number of revenue-generating assets the Arbitral Securities held a year after the sale. The agreement reportedly stipulated this would include the clients originally introduced by Arbitral or related parties.
Citing the court filings, the report said that Tether opened an account with a subsidiary of Britannia Financial in November 2021.
Britannia Financial was reportedly introduced to Tether by Aldo Mazzella, who is described as a “professional introducer” and someone believed to have had a commercial relationship with Tether since around 2017. On the other hand, Arbitral argued that an executive at Arbitral Securities also played a role in the Britannia-Tether partnership.
The news comes a few months after Bloomberg reported that Tether added Britannia Bank and Trust as a Bahamas-based private bank to process dollar transfers on its platform. Other banking partners reportedly included Deltec Bank and Capital Union Bank.
Tether chief technology officer and new CEO Paolo Ardoino reportedly previously claimed that the stablecoin firm had strong relations with more than seven banks.
Tether and Britannia Financial did not immediately respond to Cointelegraph’s request for comment.
Related: Tether freezes $225M in USDT linked to romance scammers amid DOJ investigation
Tether’s (USDT) stablecoin has been steadily gaining momentum on the market and inching toward a $90 billion market capitalization, according to data from CoinGecko. On Nov. 20, USDT’s value hit another new high at $88 billion, up 33% since the beginning of 2023.
According to Tether, USDT added more than $20 billion to its market cap in 2023 due to two key factors, including continued market excitement around the possible approval of a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund. Tether’s record-breaking growth has also been fuelled by growing demand in emerging markets like Brazil, according to the firm.
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Though the House of Representatives may soon be able to consider the three bills, President Donald Trump didn’t get all Republicans to fall in line to support the legislation.
The EU has sanctioned multiple entities for using cryptocurrencies to evade restrictions, channel funds, and propagate pro‑Russian disinformation and election interference.
Politics
Starmer says former Tory ministers have ‘serious questions to answer’ over Afghan data breach
Sir Keir Starmer has said former Tory ministers have “serious questions to answer” about how the names of Afghans who worked with UK forces were exposed.
Nearly 7,000 Afghan nationals are being relocated to the UK after their names were accidentally sent in an email in February 2022, when Boris Johnson was prime minister, but the leak was only discovered by the British military in August 2023, when Rishi Sunak was PM.
A super-injunction, preventing the reporting of the mistake, was imposed that year in an attempt to prevent the Taliban from finding out about the leak.
The Conservative government at the time then started transporting thousands of Afghans to the UK in secret as they were in danger.
On Tuesday, the injunction was lifted.
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Victim of Afghan data breach speaks to Sky
Kicking off Prime Minister’s Questions, Sir Keir said: “Ministers who served under the party opposite have serious questions to answer about how this was ever allowed to happen.
“The chair of the defence committee has indicated that he intends to hold further inquiries.
“I welcome that and hope that those who are in office at the time will welcome that scrutiny.”
The data breach saw a defence official accidentally release details of almost 19,000 people seeking to flee Afghanistan after the return of the Taliban.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch avoided mentioning the data breach, but Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey said it was “shocking” how it had been kept secret for three years.
Sir Ed said the prime minister will have the Lib Dems’ support if he decides to pursue a public inquiry.
Mr Healey’s Tory predecessor, Sir Ben Wallace, said he makes “no apology” for applying for the initial four-month injunction and insisted it was “not a cover-up”.
The scheme, which had been kept under wraps until yesterday, has so far cost hundreds of millions of pounds.
However, the total cost to the taxpayer of existing schemes to assist Afghans who are deemed eligible for British support, as well as the additional cost from the breach, will come to at least £6bn.
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Afghans being relocated after data breach
Earlier, Defence Secretary John Healey told Sky News he is “deeply uncomfortable” with the government using a super-injunction to keep the massive data breach hidden.
He said: “I’m really deeply uncomfortable with the idea that a government applies for a super-injunction.
“If there are any [other] super-injunctions in place, I just have to tell you – I don’t know about them. I haven’t been read into them.
“The important thing here now is that we’ve closed the scheme.”
Mr Healey was informed of the breach while in opposition, and earlier this year he commissioned a review that led to the injunction being lifted.
He said “accountability starts now” and added Labour had to deal with the risks, court papers, intelligence assessments and different schemes when they came to power last summer before they could lift the injunction.
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