Thai businessmen sue Tether over $42.4M USDT freeze

Two Thai businessmen have filed a lawsuit against stablecoin issuer Tether, alleging the company illegally froze $42.4 million in USDT without proper legal authority months before U.S. authorities obtained a seizure warrant. The complaint, filed on August 31 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, challenges the company's power to restrict digital assets based on informal law enforcement requests. The plaintiffs, Nutthawat Rukthammachalern and Natthawat Kasamvilas, claim Tether blacklisted ten Ethereum wallets containing precisely 42,417,785.62 USDT on October 30, 2025. They allege this action followed an informal request from an agent with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) but occurred without any warrant, court order, or subpoena. According to the lawsuit, when one plaintiff contacted Tether for an explanation, the company provided only an HSI agent's email address. The funds are connected to a broader federal investigation. On February 19, 2026, a magistrate judge in the Eastern District of North Carolina issued a seizure warrant directing Tether to burn the frozen USDT and issue equivalent new tokens to a government-controlled wallet.