Thai businessmen Nutthawat Rukthammachalern and Natthawat Kasamvilas filed a lawsuit in federal court against Tether on August 31, 2026, alleging the company improperly froze 42.4 million USDT stablecoins. ^[1] The plaintiffs claimed in the complaint that Tether blacklisted the ten Ethereum addresses in October at the informal request of a Homeland Security Investigations agent, without a warrant or court order. ^[2] The lawsuit alleges that Tether has the technological capability to block owners of USDT on any blockchain anywhere in the world from transferring or accessing their USDT and/or to destroy or to 'burn' the USDT at the push of a button. ^[3] The plaintiffs alleged that Tether blocked the tokens in October 2025 based on an informal law enforcement request, although no warrants or other legal processes were issued until February 2026. ^[4] More than three months after the blacklisting, a federal magistrate judge in North Carolina issued a seizure warrant outlining a plan for Tether to burn the restricted tokens, mint replacement USDT, and transfer it to a government-controlled wallet. ^[5] The plaintiffs argued that the seizure warrant neither retroactively authorized the freeze of the USDT nor permitted Tether to destroy the original tokens before a final forfeiture judgment. ^[6] Tether stated that the new lawsuit is a baseless attempt to interfere with Tether's important work with global law enforcement, including the Department of Justice, to prevent the unlawful use of USDT. ^[7]