Trump Spirals as His Commerce SEC. Is Linked to Crypto Company Profiting From Sales to Iran & Hamas

0:00Michael Popok:According to a bombshell new report out by the Senate Democrats on the Senate Permanent Investigation Committee, led by Senator Blumenthal, Iran is using a U.S.-based cryptocurrency connected to the Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to evade sanctions to fund and fuel its regime and ultimately to fight a war against the United States. Yes, every time Iran uses a cryptocurrency wallet filled with a cryptocurrency called USDT that's run by a company called Tether, Donald Trump's kids make the money at Cantor Fitzgerald. I'm Michael Popok. You're on Legal AF. Let's get to the bottom of the new reporting.

0:45Michael Popok:uh senator blumenthal along with the other democrats on the permanent subcommittee on investigation looked at over 846 cryptocurrency wallets tied to the iranians and 84 percent of them are using tether a stable coin meaning it's tied to the u.s dollar run uh named usdt that's the name of the coin. The coin is tied to U.S. dollar and Tether runs it. So Iran is using Tether's stable coin to evade sanctions, just like any other garden variety, money launderer, narcotics dealer, or terrorist organization. And why this is important is A, what is Tether doing to shut down that network for Iran to be able to evade sanctions.

1:40Michael Popok:I mean, you've got Scott Besant, the Treasury Secretary, making a big announcement how they're going to try to shut down Iran and crush its financial system, but they're not doing a thing about Tether. Here's Scott Besant on that point. We are squeezing the Iranians like they've never seen. Today, I would say that the external flights from Iran, probably more than 80 or 90 percent of them got shut down. I'm not sure how the Iranian representatives at the UN are going to get home. So we have made it very clear around the world, whether it's the financiers, the people who are doing business, the people who are supplying the Iranians, we know who you are, you know who you are, and we are going to prosecute and execute your companies and your bank accounts every day and every day.

2:28Michael Popok:Maybe they don't care that you're shutting down their normal banking operation because they're using Tether. What's Tether doing about it? Absolutely nothing at the current time. Now, let me tie it to Cantor Fitzgerald. Cantor Fitzgerald, a financial services company in New York, here is the primary custodian, meaning they're holding on to the U.S. Treasury bill and assets that back the cryptocurrency. See, cryptocurrency that's a stable coin environment needs a backing of something, some sort of reserve behind it, some sort of asset class behind it. And Cantor holds the U.S. Treasury bills and assets that back tethers USDT cryptocurrency.

3:20Michael Popok:And they get massive fees now paid presumably to Donald Trump's, to Howard Lutnick's children because of their being the custodian. They don't do it for free. So millions of dollars of fees, right? So they get, when every time Iran uses a tether wallet to evade U.S. and other worldwide sanctions and to fund their regime, Cantor Fitzgerald, ka-ching, gets paid. Cantor Fitzgerald also has a convertible bond position, meaning on the debt side, they own a bond that they can call and convert worth$600 million to 5 % of equity in Tether. They can own 5 % of Tether if they convert their bond position.

4:13Michael Popok:But that's not the only relationship with Tether. connected back to Iran through their wallets. There's also a company called 21 Capital. 21 Capital is owned by Tether, Cantor Fitzgerald, and SoftBank. And they together have a Bitcoin acquisition corporation. So Cantor, Howard Lucknick's original company, now owned by his sons and family, are in business with Tether as well, so that money and profits from the Iranian operation of these wallets flows back to Cantor again. Cantor also donated$10 million to a super PAC political action committee run by Tether. And Tether, while Howard Lutnick has been Commerce Secretary, loaned money to the Lutnick Trust, where Howard Lutnick put all of his assets in order to get, to make it liquid and get money, Tether was the lender to Lutnick.

5:23Michael Popok:Here's Howard Lutnick defending his relationship with Tether in the Senate. Secretary, you led the investment bank, Cantor Fitzgerald, and Cantor Fitzgerald is still maintaining significant business size with Tether, a stablecoin issuer of bomb-assiled in El Salvador. And under the Genius Act, which was enacted last year, Tether is permitted to freely offer and sell its stablecoin token in the United States without needing a license from U.S. regulators and without needing to meet any U.S. anti-money laundering and sanctions compliance requirements or obtain an audit. All it needs to do is demonstrate that El Salvador stablecoin regulations are similar to the United States.

6:11And I think this is a huge risk because the tether has been identified as helping to fund Hamas, North Korean WMD proliferation, ransom war attacks, the Russian arms, deals, et cetera. Now, you said in your confirmation hearing, quote, I believe US dollar backed stable coins should be fully audited, close quote. Does this include Tether? And if so, why has Tether not been audited? Two things for you. I am of course completely divested from all things business. I am just worried about the United States of America. My understanding is that Tether has launched a U.S. fully approved under the Genius Act stablecoin.

7:00So I think the only Tether stablecoin in America will be the fully approved under the Genius Act stablecoin. And generally speaking, I absolutely agree with you. Tether should be audited. I don't have anything to do with it, but I agree with you that Tether should be audited.

7:17Michael Popok:Now, I'm not here to begrudge somebody making a savvy business investment in cryptocurrency. And Howard Lutnick, before he became Commerce Secretary, fancied himself a little bit of a shaman, a little bit of a genius when it came to cryptocurrency. It's another relationship that ties Lutnick to Donald Trump, because Trump's family is also in cryptocurrency through world financial and through other holdings in cryptocurrency. Don Jr., Eric, Donald Trump himself, Barron Trump all have substantial billions of dollars of cryptocurrency holdings. So there's that affinity there that also ties Lutnik and Trump together.

7:59Michael Popok:So I'm not begrudging having a company. I'm begrudging making it appear that you're using your position in the government to make money for your family. And here you've got a direct connection between Iran, an enemy of the United States, a country we are at war with that is using Tether to fund its operation and evade U.S. sanctions by the Treasury Secretary, another cabinet member in Howard Lutnick's own administration with Donald Trump. So the question for me, when I bring Senator Blumenthal on here on Legal AF, is why isn't the Commerce Secretary doing more through his relationships, through his equity position, his bond position, his company, his former company run by his sons, controlling or being the primary custodian for the assets that back Tether, meaning they have a lot of power over Tether.

8:58Michael Popok:Why aren't they having Tether cut the ties with the Iranian regime. Cut the ties with the Iranian wallets. There's ways to do that. It's just that Tether makes a lot of money because of Iran's use of its stablecoin. And therefore, so does Cantor Fitzgerald. So these are the questions that need to be asked. We'll continue to ask them here on Legal AF and on the Midas Touch Network. And while you're here, thank you, quick thank you. We crossed 2 ,500 ,000 subscribers over the weekend. We're at about 830 million views of our work in the last two years, but we need more help. We got to get bigger, more robust.

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