Senator Warren questions Commerce Secretary Lutnick on Tether loan to family

Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ron Wyden sent letters to Howard Lutnick and Tether CEO Paulo Ardoino asking about a loan Tether reportedly made to Lutnick's family.

What to know:

• Two prominent U.S. Senate Democrats are questioning Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick and the CEO of Tether, Paulo Ardoino, about reports that the stablecoin company provided substantial lending to a trust that helped finance the transfer of Lutnick's former company, Cantor Fitzgerald, to his adult children.
• Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ron Wyden said that any such lending "would raise serious questions" about Lutnick's relationship with the foreign stablecoin issuer.

U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, the former CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald that handles Tether's finances in the U.S., has been questioned by Senate Democrats on reports that a trust tied to his children received a loan from Tether meant to help finance Lutnick's divestiture of his company stake that went to his children.

Senators Elizabeth Warren, who is the ranking Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, and Ron Wyden, who is the top Democrat on the Finance Committee, asked the leading global issuer of stablecoins whether it helped finance Lutnick's multi-billion-dollar transfer of the financial-services company through trusts tied to his adult children when Lutnick complied with government ethics requirements after taking the Cabinet position.

"If reports of this loan are accurate, it would raise serious questions about the relationship between Secretary Lutnick and Tether, and the influence of Tether on Mr. Lutnick’s policy decisions," the lawmakers wrote in both letters, which responded to reporting about the loans of unspecified amounts that first appeared in Bloomberg News.

Congress, with help from the administration of President Donald Trump, helped usher in a new law last year to govern stablecoin issuers, including Tether. CEO Ardoino was a front-row guest at a White House signing of that law, known as the GENIUS Act. Lutnick was also present for the celebration and has been a member of the President’s Working Group on Digital Assets that's outlined and driven U.S. crypto policy.

"It is critical that you make decisions because they are in the best interest of the American public, not in the financial interest of your family or Tether," the senators wrote to Lutnick.

Representatives for the Department of Commerce and Tether didn't immediately respond to requests for comment on the letters.

Lutnick's Cantor is now under the watch of sons Brandon Lutnick, chairman & CEO, and Kyle Lutnick, executive vice chairman.

Tether, with a headquarters in El Salvador, has been pursuing a U.S. strategy, with the launch of its USAT stablecoin and a U.S. arm of the company that's led by Bo Hines, a former crypto adviser for Trump.

Cantor is so far the biggest donor to the Fellowship PAC, a relatively new political action committee that's so far spent a few million dollars supporting Republicans in various Senate, House and governor races. The expenditures from Fellowship, which is led by a Tether U.S. executive, have been through a media firm whose co-founders include Hines and his father.

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