I'm the last one to defend Tether because it looks as shady as hell, but ... > This is willful money laundering Money laundering is the concealment of the ori

I'm the last one to defend Tether because it looks as shady as hell, but ... > This is willful money laundering Money laundering is the concealment of the origins of illegally obtained money. If the money was legally obtained then it can't be money laundering. Just creating an alternate way to move clean money isn't prima facie a crime. > If a bank is hiding its direct or indirect relationship to Bitfinex, they are betting the bank on Bitfinex Banks probably don't even know about Bitfinex. If Fuckwit Capital Partners has $100m on deposit with Wells Fargo and pledges 10% of it to buy Ethereum, those dollars stay in FCP's account and the bank has no idea that the funds are pledged. Upon receipt of the promissory note from FCP, 10m new Tethers get created with the Ethereum as collateral. > claim that Tether has a "relatively simple balance sheet." The balance sheet could be very simple, but devilishly difficult to audit. ASSETS Accounts Receivable from Investors, $2.4 billion LIABILITIES Tethers Payable to Traders, $2.4 billion If Friedman LLP wanted to prove all the pledged USD to back up the receivables, that could be an expensive and invasive audit of counterparties who don't want their banks get wind of their cryptocurrency activities.