Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick is furious at the New York financial giant’s huge investment in Tether, a cryptocurrency popular with terrorist groups including Hamas.
Last month, Lutnick, whose brother is an ardent supporter of Israel and whose brother killed about 3,000 people in the 9/11 attacks, touted Tether at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, saying the company’s balance sheet was healthy. reassured investors.
Lutnick would know.
According to Bloomberg, Cantor Fitzgerald controls “many” of the cryptocurrency giant’s $86 billion in assets.
“They have the money they say they have” Lutnick told Bloomberg TVaddressed long-standing speculation that Tether’s coins are not backed 1:1 by dollars.
Mr. Lutnick’s vocal support for Tether raised eyebrows in the wake of the deadly Hamas terrorist attack in Israel on October 7.
Three extremist groups, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and Hezbollah, used cryptocurrencies primarily via Tether in the year leading up to the massacre, according to a review of Israeli government seizure orders and blockchain analysis reports. received $93 million. The Wall Street Journal reported.
“Tether has been used for terrorist financing and is also widely used for crypto fraud and fraud,” Adam Zaladzinski, CEO of crypto intelligence firm Inca Digital, told the Post. Ta.
Testifying on terrorism financing before the U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee on October 25, Zarazynski gave an example of the Gaza Now Telegram channel, which provided email accounts for donations on Tether.
The post was later deleted.
He called on Lutnick to push Tether to crack down on terrorist financing, fraud and money laundering.
“Tether can do so much more,” Zarazynski said.
Tether officials said the numbers used by the Journal were significantly inaccurate due to flaws in attribution technology.
Still, the company acknowledged that it is working with Israel’s National Counter-Terrorism Financing Agency to crack down on illegal exchanges.
“Tether remains vigilant and has taken all necessary steps to curb such illegal activity.
Overall, Tether has supported law enforcement agencies in cases related to Israel,” the company said.
Israel refers to the terrorist attacks on its soil as “9/11,” but for Lutnick, whose brother was among the 960 Cantor Fitzgerald workers killed at the World Trade Center, It’s a familiar event.
Perhaps Lutnik survived because he was late at work after dropping his son off at kindergarten.
He rebuilt Cantor to become a model of resilience and donated $180 million to victims’ families.
Mr. Lutnick is the director of the National September 11 Memorial Museum.
In 2017, the UJA Federation honored Lutnick at its annual Wall Street Dinner.
Since the Hamas attack, Wall Street companies have been raising money to help Israelis, and all donations are being matched.
“Cantor Fitzgerald is shocked by fear Occurred in the Middle East. We stand with Israel and condemn the atrocities committed against it by Hamas. Now, never again,” Cantor Fitzgerald said on its website.
“Hamas is terrorism and we are here to support Israel.”
A person familiar with Lutnick said the criticism of Cantor was unfair.
“It is not accurate to say that it is hypocritical to support Israel while working with companies that are trying to prevent their products from being used to support suspicious activities,” the official said. Stated.
Spokespeople for Mr. Lutnick and Mr. Kanter declined to comment.
