US authorities have seized approximately $84.2 million in assets linked to the payment firm Capstone Limited. The company acted as an intermediary for EQIBank, a bank registered in Dominica that provided services to Tether for processing client wire transfers related to USDT purchases and redemptions.
Court documents from California detail the seized funds, including $79.1 million at Wells Fargo Securities, $1.86 million at Wells Fargo Bank, and $2.06 million at JPMorgan Chase. Additionally, the seizure includes approximately 1.18 million USDT held across two digital addresses.
EQIBank, which claims the seized assets total about $89 million and represent 80% of its cash holdings, filed a motion for their return. On July 16, federal judge Dale Drozd denied this request, stating the court lacked jurisdiction under Rule 41(g) following the filing of a separate civil forfeiture lawsuit by prosecutors.
Prosecutors allege that Capstone misrepresented itself to banks as an IT company while using its accounts to move funds for crypto and financial clients. Tether stated it was unaware of these activities and noted that the affected assets represent less than 0.034% of its total group assets, which were reported at $187.75 billion as of June.
A notice regarding the forfeiture case was posted on forfeiture.gov on September 14, allowing interested parties 30 days to claim the assets. The final ownership of the funds remains undecided as the civil proceedings continue.
