Reported by Scott Chipolina

Tether, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency platforms, has emerged as one of the leading payment methods for money launderers and fraudsters operating in south-east Asia, the UN has warned. 

According to a report published on Monday by the UN’s office on drugs and crime, Tether’s crypto token, also known as tether, is at the heart of an exploding industry of scams, including those that engineer false romantic connections to gain a victim’s trust before luring them to transfer large sums — a strategy commonly referred to as “pig butchering”.

The UN report notes that in recent years authorities have dismantled several money laundering networks responsible for moving illicit Tether funds, including an operation that recovered $737mn in cash and crypto by Singaporean authorities last August. 

In November last year, following a joint investigation with US authorities and crypto exchange OKX, Tether froze $225mn worth of its tokens connected to a “pig butchering” and human trafficking syndicate in south-east Asia, the report says. 

Erin West, a criminal prosecutor and cyber crime expert based in California, said pig butchers gravitated to Tether’s digital coin because the cryptocurrency promised speedy, irreversible transactions on a blockchain. 

“Tether is the mechanism of choice . . . it’s fast and transactions cannot be retracted. Once money is moved, it’s moved. You can’t pull it back,” West said. 

“You’re creating a situation where victims are blinded by love, coupled with the opportunity to get rich quickly . . . They’re being asked to buy something that they’re not familiar with, and prior to cryptocurrency there weren’t many opportunities to do that,” she added.

Read full report: https://www.ft.com/content/78c6ea20-5e9d-40ba-867f-1e0431ebb710