Senator Richard Blumenthal, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, sent letters on Thursday to Tether and to Nxum Group, the consulting firm co-founded by Bo Hines, CoinDesk reports.
Hines was the White House’s crypto adviser and now leads Tether’s US arm. The letters concern payments Tether reportedly made to Nxum while he was advising the administration on crypto and stablecoin policy.
Blumenthal wrote that the dealings raise serious ethical and legal concerns. He suggested Tether was likely aware it was improper to pay a sitting White House official who was shaping legislation important to its business, and he asked for details of the arrangements.
The amounts remain unclear. CoinDesk relays a Wall Street Journal report that Nxum received large payments, and has itself reported that the firm made millions of dollars as the main ad provider for a Tether-linked political action committee. Its account of the letters gives no payment figure.
Tether says external counsel ran an in-depth internal investigation and found no evidence of wrongdoing. Chief executive Paolo Ardoino has separately criticised Blumenthal for releasing a report to the press before giving Tether a chance to respond.
The setting matters. Nxum has since hired Harry Jung, another former White House crypto adviser, and the White House crypto policy office is vacant after Patrick Witt left. CoinDesk cites Kalshi putting Democrats’ chance of winning the Senate at 69 percent, which would give Blumenthal more subpoena power.
Letters are requests, not findings. What remains unknown is whether Tether answers them, and what the payments actually were.
