According to CoinMeta, Wu said that lawyer Ariel Givner indicated that the lawsuit involving approximately $42.4 million in frozen USDT may stem from a “pig butchering scam” in North Carolina, USA. Following investigations based on clues provided by victims, the Raleigh office of the US Department of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) informally requested on October 31, 2025, that Tether blacklist the Ethereum addresses of two Thai plaintiffs, without a search warrant or prior notice at that time. On February 19, 2026, the Eastern District Court of North Carolina subsequently issued a seizure order, requiring Tether to destroy the frozen USDT and reissue it to a government wallet. Five days later, local law enforcement announced the seizure of about $61 million in USDT, claiming that the funds were related to money laundering from the “pig butchering scam.” The plaintiffs did not deny that the government identified the relevant USDT as scam funds; instead, they argued that Tether had already frozen the assets of secondary market holders before the court order was issued and questioned whether subsequent orders authorized Tether as a private issuer to freeze, destroy, or reissue these tokens. They also requested the recovery of profits obtained by Tether from the reserve assets during the freeze period.