Senator Blumenthal asks Cantor Fitzgerald for its Tether records by 23 October
Serguey Asael Shinder2 min readSenator Richard Blumenthal, the ranking Democrat on the US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, has sent a letter to investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald demanding records on its relationship with stablecoin issuer Tether, Cointelegraph reported on 9 October. He asked for a response by 23 October.
What the letter asks for. Addressed to Cantor chairman Brandon Lutnick, it requests an explanation of how Cantor monitors Tether's compliance with banking and sanctions laws; all communications involving Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick about Tether, including after he left Cantor; the terms of his divestiture from the firm and any loans or financing Tether provided to him or his family for the ownership transfer; whether Cantor requires independent audits of Tether; whether it has ever considered ending the partnership; and what it has done to look into allegations of illicit finance and sanctions evasion.
The background, as stated in the letter and the report. Cantor has acted since 2021 as custodian for part of the US Treasuries backing Tether's reserves and acquired rights to a 5% stake in Tether in 2024, a deal Howard Lutnick helped negotiate as Cantor's chairman and CEO; he stepped down after his Senate confirmation in February 2025, and his sons now chair the firm. Blumenthal alleges that the stake's estimated value rose from $600 million to $10 billion and that Howard Lutnick received more than $250 million in that period. The letter follows a report last month by the subcommittee's Democratic investigators alleging that USDT has become a key tool in Iran's shadow banking network; Blumenthal has asked the Treasury and the Justice Department to look into possible sanctions violations.
The other side. Tether said it has worked with law enforcement for years and has frozen nearly $550 million in Iran-linked USDT this year. Cointelegraph said Cantor and Tether did not immediately respond to its requests for comment.
What this is — and is not. A letter from a minority ranking member is a request for documents, not a subpoena, and the figures above are the senator's allegations, not findings. What makes it worth following is the deadline and the questions themselves: they ask how a US-regulated custodian of a stablecoin's reserves checks that issuer's sanctions compliance — a question regulators of stablecoin custody will face regardless of who is asking.
Source: Cointelegraph, "Cantor Fitzgerald faces Senate Democrat's questions over Tether ties", 9 October 2026 — https://cointelegraph.com/news/cantor-fitzgerald-faces-senate-democrats-probe-over-tether-ties