Tether Sued Over Alleged $42M USDT Freeze in Pig-Butchering Case
Two Thai businessmen, Nutthawat Rukthammachalern and Natthawat Kasamvilas, have sued Tether in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York over an alleged $42.4 million USDT freeze.
The plaintiffs claim that on October 30, 2025, Tether blacklisted 10 Ethereum addresses containing approximately 42,417,785.62 USDT without proper legal authorization.
According to the complaint, Tether acted after receiving an informal request from a Homeland Security Investigations agent and allegedly referred the plaintiffs to an HSI agent's email address when they contacted the company about the freeze.
The plaintiffs argue that possessing technical control over the Ethereum smart contract does not automatically give Tether legal authority over tokens held by third parties.