Solomon Samuel 
The Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request submitted in New York by several prominent news organizations, including Tether and Bitfinex, has been mutually consented to to relinquish their initial opposition.
In response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request from CoinDesk earlier this year, the USDT stablecoin issuer and cryptocurrency exchange stated that it is devoted to sharing information transparently.
Furthermore, the corporations declared their intention to withhold documentation from the public, asserting that such a course of action contradicts their established business protocols:
“It’s essential to clarify that transparency does not mean a wholesale release of all our documents.”
Despite the “certain behaviors” that the aforementioned writers engaged in, Tether and Bitfinex assert that they won’t appeal the Freedom of Information (FOI) request that Zeke Faux, Shane Shifflett, and Ada Hui made.
As per the organization’s assertion, Faux’s previous coverage of Tether and Bitfinex “surpassed the confines of professional journalism.”
They also claim that media outlets like Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal, whose journalists are involved in the ongoing FOIL request, have provided “one-sided and inaccurate” coverage.
Because they “maintain a commitment to ethical reporting standards and respect data privacy boundaries,” the statement emphasizes that both organizations are transparent and remain amenable to dialogue with regulatory bodies and journalists.
Furthermore, both Tether and Bitfinex have emphasized that their commitment to transparency does not “constitute unrestricted public disclosure of all documents” and have advocated for “responsible document review” before any information release.
Tether and Bitfinex settled with the New York Attorney General’s (NYAG) office in February 2021, after which the ongoing FOIL request was initiated.
This required a $18.5 million sanction to end a two-year legal dispute over the alleged contamination of $850 million in client and corporate funds, as CNBC first reported.
Two years of quarterly transparency reports to the NYAG were mandated as part of the settlement for Tether and Bitfinex.
In New York, Coindesk filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request after the fulfillment of these obligations, requesting the public disclosure of materials about Tether’s initial quarterly report that it had submitted following the settlement agreement.
Tether asserted its opposition to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIL) request in June 2023, citing concerns that “malicious actors” might exploit “sensitive commercial information” and “confidential customer data” to prevent their public disclosure.