Two Thai businessmen sue Tether over $42.4 million USDT freeze

Two Thai businessmen sued Tether over a $42.4 million freeze of their USDT. Nutthawat Rukthammachalern and Natthawat Kasamvilas say Tether blacklisted 10 Ethereum addresses on October 30, 2025. Those wallets held 42,417,785.62 USDT. The complaint was filed in the Southern District of New York on August 31. The complaint asks whether an issuer can immobilize tokens bought on the open market without legal process. The men emailed Tether two days after the freeze. Tether directed them to a Homeland Security Investigations special agent. The filing states that Tether gave no legal basis. A magistrate judge in the Eastern District of North Carolina issued seizure warrant 5:26-MJ-1267-JG on February 19, 2026. The warrant directed Tether to burn the frozen tokens. It also directed Tether to reissue the tokens to a government wallet. Prosecutors in North Carolina announced a $61 million USDT seizure five days later. Prosecutors traced the seizure to romance investment fraud. Counsel Ariel Givner surfaced the filing. Givner noted that the plaintiffs do not dispute that the government calls the coins scam proceeds. The men bring five claims. The claims include conversion, trespass to chattels, and unjust enrichment. The men bought the tokens secondhand. They never opened a Tether account. They never accepted Tether's terms of service. The complaint says an informal request from a law enforcement agent does not constitute legal process under federal law. The unjust enrichment claim targets reserve interest. The filing says Tether holds roughly $130 billion in Treasury securities through Cantor Fitzgerald. Tether continues collecting the coupon while frozen holders cannot redeem their tokens. The requested relief includes restored transferability. The complaint seeks a ban on burning the tokens. It also seeks disgorgement of the yield and punitive damages. Funds have escaped before blacklists were completed, according to the filing. The company has moved within hours on OFAC sanctions requests. Circle refused to reissue frozen USDC without clear legal authority. Tether has not answered the suit. No judge has ruled. USDT has a $183 billion market value. Tether's response is due before a North Carolina ruling on the plaintiffs' July 31 return application.