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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Politics
Norman Tebbit: Former Tory minister who served in Margaret Thatcher’s government dies aged 94
Norman Tebbit, the former Tory minister who served in Margaret Thatcher’s government, has died at the age of 94.
Lord Tebbit died “peacefully at home” late on Monday night, his son William confirmed.
One of Mrs Thatcher’s most loyal cabinet ministers, he was a leading political voice throughout the turbulent 1980s.
He held the posts of employment secretary, trade secretary, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Conservative party chairman before resigning as an MP in 1992 after his wife was left disabled by the Provisional IRA’s bombing of the Grand Hotel in Brighton.
He considered standing for the Conservative leadership after Mrs Thatcher’s resignation in 1990, but was committed to taking care of his wife.
Margaret Thatcher and Norman Tebbit in 1987 after her election victory. Pic: PA
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch called him an “icon” in British politics and was “one of the leading exponents of the philosophy we now know as Thatcherism”.
“But to many of us it was the stoicism and courage he showed in the face of terrorism, which inspired us as he rebuilt his political career after suffering terrible injuries in the Brighton bomb, and cared selflessly for his wife Margaret, who was gravely disabled in the bombing,” she wrote on X.
“He never buckled under pressure and he never compromised. Our nation has lost one of its very best today and I speak for all the Conservative family and beyond in recognising Lord Tebbit’s enormous intellect and profound sense of duty to his country.
“May he rest in peace.”
Lord Tebbit and his wife Margaret stand outside the Grand Hotel in Brighton. Pic: PA
Tory grandee David Davis told Sky News Lord Tebbit was a “great working class Tory, always ready to challenge establishment conventional wisdom for the bogus nonsense it often was”.
“He was one of Thatcher’s bravest and strongest lieutenants, and a great friend,” Sir David said.
“He had to deal with the agony that the IRA visited on him and his wife, and he did so with characteristic unflinching courage. He was a great man.”
Reform leader Nigel Farage said Lord Tebbit “gave me a lot of help in my early days as an MEP”.
He was “a great man. RIP,” he added.
Lord Tebbit as employment secretary in 1983 with Mrs Thatcher. Pic: PA
Born to working-class parents in north London, he was made a life peer in 1992, where he sat until he retired in 2022.
Lord Tebbit was trade secretary when he was injured in the Provisional IRA’s bombing in Brighton during the Conservative Party conference in 1984.
Five people died in the attack and Lord Tebbit’s wife, Margaret, was left paralysed from the neck down. She died in 2020 at the age of 86.
Before entering politics, his first job, aged 16, was at the Financial Times where he had his first experience of trade unions and vowed to “break the power of the closed shop”.
He then trained as a pilot with the RAF – at one point narrowly escaping from the burning cockpit of a Meteor 8 jet – before becoming the MP for Epping in 1970 then for Chingford in 1974.
Lord Tebbit during an EU debate in the House of Lords in 1997. Pic: PA
As a cabinet minister, he was responsible for legislation that weakened the powers of the trade unions and the closed shop, making him the political embodiment of the Thatcherite ideology that was in full swing.
His tough approach was put to the test when riots erupted in Brixton, south London, against the backdrop of high rates of unemployment and mistrust between the black community and the police.
He was frequently misquoted as having told the unemployed to “get on your bike”, and was often referred to as “Onyerbike” for some time afterwards.
What he actually said was he grew up in the ’30s with an unemployed father who did not riot, “he got on his bike and looked for work, and he kept looking till he found it”.
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