Senators Question Lutnick Over Tether Loan to Children’s Trust

Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ron Wyden asked Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to explain a report that a trust benefiting his four children borrowed from Tether in October, the same month he sold his stake in Cantor Fitzgerald.

In a letter dated April 29, the senators asked whether the Tether loan financed the divestiture, whether Lutnick helped arrange the loan, the loan’s size and terms, and whether he has had any contact with Tether or its executives since becoming Commerce Secretary. They requested documents and a timeline of related transactions and communications by a specified deadline.

The senators noted reporting that the trust that borrowed from Tether holds more than half of Cantor Fitzgerald’s equity and that the loan was secured by “all assets” in the trust. They wrote that if those reports are accurate, they would raise “serious questions” about Lutnick’s relationship with Tether and any potential influence on his policy decisions.

Lutnick was the long-time chairman and CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald. He became Commerce Secretary in February 2025, agreed to divest his stake in the firm, and completed the divestiture in October 2025. The reported loan to the children’s trust occurred in October as well.

Cantor Fitzgerald manages large holdings of U.S. Treasury bonds that are part of the reserves backing USDT, Tether’s largest stablecoin. In 2024 at the World Economic Forum, Lutnick defended Tether, saying, “From what we’ve seen, and we did a lot of work, they have the money they say they have.”

Tether and the Department of Commerce did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The letter follows broader scrutiny by Democratic lawmakers about potential conflicts of interest between government officials and the cryptocurrency industry; such concerns have been raised in congressional hearings on crypto policy since the start of the current presidential term.