Senators Question Lutnick Over Tether Loan to Children’s Trust

Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ron Wyden on April 29 asked Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to disclose whether a loan from Tether to a trust benefiting his four children financed his October sale of a stake in Cantor Fitzgerald.

The senators’ letter cites a recent report that a trust for Lutnick’s children borrowed from Tether in October, the same month Lutnick completed the divestiture. The letter states the trust that took the loan holds more than half of Cantor’s equity and that the loan was secured by “all assets” in the trust.

Warren and Wyden requested that Lutnick say whether Tether’s loan financed the divestiture, whether he had any role in procuring, soliciting or negotiating the loan, the size and terms of the borrowing, and whether he has had any contact with Tether or its executives since becoming Commerce Secretary. The letter asks for a prompt written response and documentation related to the loan and any communications.

Lutnick became Commerce Secretary in February 2025 and agreed to divest his holdings; he completed the divestiture in October. Cantor Fitzgerald manages billions of dollars in U.S. Treasury securities that back USDT, Tether’s largest stablecoin, a connection the senators cited in their letter.

The letter includes direct language: “If reports of this loan are accurate, it would raise serious questions about your relationship with Tether and the company’s influence on your policy decisions,” and adds, “We want to ensure that Tether has not sought to bribe or otherwise exert control or influence over you.”

Lutnick has previously defended Tether publicly. At the World Economic Forum in Davos in 2024 he told a televised interview, “There’s a company that I like called Tether…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.