Curaçao Gaming Authority records raise questions over Tether.bet licence application

Reported property sale cited as funding evidence May 2020

£3.75m

Questions are being raised about the route by which Tether.bet secured its Curaçao gambling licence, after an investigation connected the application to paperwork that may not have been authentic. The matter surfaced when the hacker Lilith Wittman breached systems of the Curaçao Gaming Authority (CGA) last month, laying bare thousands of files on licensed gambling operators, among them ownership details, compliance records and business plans. Democracy for Sale examined material from the leak and passed it to The Times, whose own checks followed. That material reportedly covered documents filed as part of the now-defunct Tether.bet licensing process.

“Mr Cottrell has no interest in Tether.bet.”

The leaked compliance records list Hon Kong Yong, a Malaysian accountant, as Tether.bet's owner; the documents describe him as a personal friend of George Cottrell. Yong handed over a document tied to the reported £3.75m sale of a Kensington property, and that document was put forward as evidence of sufficient funding for the business. Land Registry searches confirmed the transaction itself took place in May 2020. Records reviewed during the investigation reportedly indicated, however, that Yong was not the seller. The retired French couple listed as the sellers, along with the Swiss banker named as the buyer in both the Curaçao paperwork and Land Registry records, told The Times they had never met Yong and had no knowledge of him.

Any executive role at Tether.bet is denied by Cottrell. In a statement, his lawyers said: “Mr Cottrell has no interest in Tether.bet. “Our client has never been a shareholder of any company that owns Tether.bet, whether directly or indirectly, nor for that matter, has he been a director, employee or consultant of Tether.bet, held any management or bank account control of Tether.bet, solicited any clients for Tether.bet (in any jurisdiction), or had any involvement in the running of its operations.” “ His relationship with Tether.bet has been limited to that of a customer, in addition to which he knows and is friends with its owner.”