Heir to Cartier Arrested for Allegedly Laundering Money Using USDT

Maximilien de Hoop Cartier and five Colombians have been arrested and charged with money laundering from drug trafficking proceeds using Tether USDT. The six were allegedly laundering money from these proceeds, making transfers to Colombia through the US.

The Department of Justice charged the group with conspiring to commit money laundering based on their alleged participation in a network that laundered millions of dollars through the world’s largest stablecoin, Tether.

In addition, Maximilien de Hoop has also been charged with money laundering, bank fraud, and operating unlicensed money-transmitting businesses based on Cartier’s system of shell companies based in the US. His counterparts, Zuluaga Duque, Lopez Ortiz, Alexander Ceballos, and Adrian Fernando, were also charged with conspiring to import cocaine into the US in excess of 100 Kilos.

The case has since been assigned to U.S. District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil. And here’s what the U.S. Attorney Damian Williams had to say.

“The charges brought today demonstrate this Office’s commitment to prosecuting international drug traffickers and piercing complicated money laundering networks seeking to exploit the U.S financial system… Cartier is additionally alleged to have committed a series of financial offenses while working with this money laundering network that resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars worth of unlawful transactions.”

USDT’s alleged usage in yet another money laundering scheme comes as another blow to Tether, as they struggle to clean up their network and ensure USDT usage meets their compliance measures.

USDT in Money Laundering – Tether’s Resolve

Tether’s USDT has been mentioned in multiple illegal cases involving money laundering and other illegal activities. As a result, just recently, Tether announced its partnership with Chainalysis in a bid to regulate USDT’s use in the secondary markets.

The partnership seeks to ensure compliance measures within Tether’s ecosystem through a monitoring solution. Late last month, Cryptopolitan’s Yaroslav Belkin had an exclusive chat with Paolo Ardoino, the CEO of Tether, who outlines USDT’s evolution and impact beyond the US.

Paolo and Tether have remained steadfast in securing USDT’s usage, and through its recent collaboration with Chainalysis, it will focus its energy on monitoring key identifiable areas of concern through deep market analysis.

The customized tool, developed by blockchain data company Chainalysis, will incorporate illegal transaction detection tools as well as large account monitoring tools to help curb illegal usage of the stablecoin.