Tether and Bitfinex have jointly agreed to drop their initial objections to freedom of information (FOIL) requests filed in New York by multiple prominent news outlets.
A statement Information shared with Cointelegraph by the USDT stablecoin issuer and cryptocurrency exchange noted that the company is committed to transparently sharing information following Coindesk’s FOIL request earlier this year.
The companies also said they would not release the document publicly, claiming the practice was inconsistent with their business practices:
“It’s important to clarify that transparency does not mean releasing all of our documents in bulk.”
Tether and Bitfinex will not appeal FOIL requests filed by journalists including Zeke Faux, Shane Shifflett, and Ada Hui, while claiming that they will do so despite the “certain conduct” exhibited by the authors involved.
The company claimed that Faux’s past reporting on Tether and Bitfinex “exceeded the boundaries of professional journalism.” They also claim that media outlets including the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg, whose reporters are participating in ongoing FOIL requests, are “one-sided and inaccurate.”
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The statement emphasized that both companies are committed to transparency and remain open to engaging with journalists and regulators as they “adhere to ethical reporting standards and respect data privacy boundaries.”
Tether and Bitfinex also called for “responsible document review” before releasing any information publicly, and that their efforts to maintain transparency “do not equate to unrestricted public disclosure of all documents.”
Cointelegraph has reached out to Tether to determine more details about the FOIL request and the information surrounding it.
Tether and Bitfinex filed the ongoing FOIL request after reaching an agreement with the New York Attorney General’s (NYAG) office in February 2021. report That involves paying an $18.5 million fine to resolve a two-year legal dispute involving an alleged commingling of $850 million in client funds and company funds, CNBC reported.
Part of the settlement requires Tether and Bitfinex to submit quarterly transparency reports to the NYAG within two years. Following the conclusion of these obligations, Coindesk filed a FOIL request in New York seeking public disclosure of materials it submitted under the settlement agreement related to Tether Season 1.
exist June 2023Tether claimed that it objected to the FOIL request to prevent the public dissemination of “confidential customer information” and to prevent the use of “sensitive business information,” fearing that the information could be exploited by “malicious actors.”
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