US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, the former CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, which handles Tether’s US finances, has been questioned by Senate Democrats over reports that a trust linked to his children received a loan from Tether intended to help finance Lutnick’s sale of his stake in the company that he passed on to his children.
Senators Elizabeth Warren, who is the ranking Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, and Ron Wyden, who is the top Democrat on the Finance Committee, asked the world’s leading stablecoin issuer whether it helped finance Lutnick’s multibillion-dollar transfer of the financial services company through trusts tied to his adult children when Lutnick complied with government ethics requirements after taking the Cabinet post.
“If reports of this loan are accurate, it would raise serious questions about the relationship between Secretary Lutnick and Tether, and Tether’s influence on Mr. Lutnick’s policy decisions,” the lawmakers wrote in both letters, which responded to reports of loans of unspecified amounts that first appeared in Bloomberg News.
Congress, with the help of President Donald Trump’s administration, helped push through a new law last year to regulate stablecoin issuers, including Tether. CEO Ardoino was a front-row guest at the White House signing of that law, known as the GENIUS Act. Lutnick was also present at the celebration and has been a member of the President’s Task Force on Digital Assets that outlined and advanced US crypto policy.
“It is critical that you make decisions because they are in the best interest of the American public, not the financial interest of your family or Tether,” the senators wrote to Lutnick.
Representatives from the Department of Commerce and Tether did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the letters.
Lutnick’s Cantor is now under the supervision of his sons Brandon Lutnick, president and CEO, and Kyle Lutnick, executive vice president.
El Salvador-based Tether has been pursuing a U.S. strategy, with the launch of its USAT stablecoin and a U.S. arm of the company run by Bo Hines, a former Trump crypto adviser.
Cantor is so far the largest donor to the Fellowship PAC, a relatively new political action committee that has so far spent a few million dollars supporting Republicans in several Senate, House and gubernatorial races. Expenses for Fellowship, which is run by a Tether executive in the US, have been made through a media company whose co-founders include Hines and his father.
