All posts tagged: Freezes

Tether Freezes 4 Million USDT Stablecoins Flagged For Illicit Activity

Tether Freezes $344 Million USDT Stablecoins Flagged For Illicit Activity

Published by Jenni Sidey

Tether froze more than $344 million in USDT across two Tron addresses on Thursday, in coordination with the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), marking one of the stablecoin issuer’s largest compliance actions on record. While Tether did not name the network of the frozen funds, blockchain security firm PeckShield identified the blacklisted addresses as TNiq9…QZH81 and TTiDL…pjSr9, holding approximately $213 million and $131 million respectively. The action comes weeks after the $285 million Drift Protocol exploit; an incident that put the entire stablecoin industry under public scrutiny and drove hard questions about issuer’s crisis responses. Tether addressed the incident by proposing a $127.5 million recovery contribution.  “USDT is not a safe haven for illicit activity,” said Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino, in a statement. “When credible links to sanctioned entities or criminal networks are identified, we act immediately and decisively. Recent events have shown what happens when platforms fail to move quickly, enforcement breaks down, users are exposed, and trust erodes.” “Our approach is different,” he continued. “We combine blockchain transparency with real-time …

Microsoft Freezes Hiring In Cloud And Sales As Stock Suffers Worst Start To Year On Record

Microsoft Freezes Hiring In Cloud And Sales As Stock Suffers Worst Start To Year On Record

Published by Jenni Sidey

Microsoft shares were trading lower Thursday afternoon, leaving the stock deeper in bear-market territory and down about 24% on the year. Seasonal data suggests it is the worst start to a year for Microsoft on record.  A new report from The Information says Microsoft executives have instructed managers across major divisions, including Azure cloud and North American sales, to freeze hiring as part of a broader effort to reduce costs and boost margins ahead of the June fiscal year-end.  Microsoft employees who spoke with the outlet said the hiring freeze is not companywide. They said Copilot and some other AI-related engineering divisions are still hiring, but managers in large cloud and sales organizations were told to halt all new hirings in recent weeks.  “The company reported slightly decelerating Azure growth in the fourth quarter of last year and said roughly 45% of its Azure revenue backlog, or customer spending commitments, come from one customer, OpenAI,” The Information noted. Microsoft reduced headcount by 15,000 last year. The company ended 2025 with 228,000 full-time employees, the same …

France Freezes Sale of M Hans Baldung Drawing With Export Ban

France Freezes Sale of $3M Hans Baldung Drawing With Export Ban

Published by Jenni Sidey

The French government has stepped in to stop the sale of a newly identified drawing by Hans Baldung, according to the Art Newspaper, throwing a last-minute wrench into what was shaping up to be a major Old Master auction in Paris. The small portrait, dated to 1517 and attributed to the German Renaissance artist, was slated to hit the block at French auction house Beaussant Lefèvre, carrying an estimate of $1.74 million to $3.5 million. Two days before the auction, France’s culture ministry declared it a national treasure, triggering a 30-month export ban and effectively pulling it off the market.  Related Articles That kind of intervention is rare but not unheard of in France, where the state can halt sales to give local institutions time to raise funds and keep important works in the country. In this case, the stakes are unusually high. Baldung drawings almost never come up for sale, and this one is being billed as the only surviving silverpoint portrait by the artist still in private hands.  The work itself is modest in size …

Walz unveils antifraud package after Trump administration freezes Minnesota Medicaid funds

Walz unveils antifraud package after Trump administration freezes Minnesota Medicaid funds

Published by Sam Flores

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) on Thursday unveiled a legislative package intended to mitigate fraud a day after the Trump administration paused $259.5 million in Medicaid funds for the North Star State.  Walz’s package would create a new statute that increases penalties for public fraud by 20 percent and extend statutes of limitations to seven… Source link

US freezes visa processing from 75 countries over public assistance

US freezes visa processing from 75 countries over public assistance

Published by Sam Flores

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks during his end-of-year press conference at the State Department in Washington, D.C., U.S., Dec. 19, 2025. Kevin Mohatt | Reuters The State Department said Wednesday it will suspend the processing of immigrant visas for citizens of 75 countries whose nationals are deemed likely to require public assistance while living in the United States. The State Department, led by Secretary Marco Rubio, said it had instructed consular officers to halt immigrant visa applications from the countries affected in accordance with a broader order issued in November that tightened rules around potential immigrants who might become “public charges” in the U.S. The suspension, which will begin Jan. 21, will not apply to applicants seeking non-immigrant visas, or temporary tourist or business visas. “The Trump administration is bringing an end to the abuse of America’s immigration system by those who would extract wealth from the American people,” the department said in a statement. “Immigrant visa processing from these 75 countries will be paused while the State Department reassess immigration processing procedures to prevent the entry of foreign nationals who would take welfare and public benefits.” The statement …

“Brazen attack on our children”: Trump admin freezes billions in funding for blue states

“Brazen attack on our children”: Trump admin freezes billions in funding for blue states

Published by Sam Flores

The federal government froze $10 billion in childcare funding from five Democratic-led states on Tuesday, citing systemic fraud following a welfare fraud scandal in Minnesota. In letters from Administration for Children and Families, a division of the Department of Health and Human Services, Minnesota, Colorado, California, Illinois and New York will lose access to three major childcare funds. Funding will be frozen until investigations into each state are concluded. The largest freeze is from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, which provides cash assistance for family living expenses. Around $7.3 billion is cut off from TANF, $2.4 billion from the Child Care and Development Fund and $870 million from the Social Services Block Grant program. The freeze is being justified in part because of the social services scandal in Minnesota, which found some Minnesotans fraudulently using pandemic and social safety funds without providing social services. Prior to these most recent funding stops, $185 million in annual aid to Minnesota day care centers was frozen. Some of the accused individuals belong to the state’s Somali …

Trump administration freezes billion in child, family aid

Trump administration freezes $10 billion in child, family aid

Published by Sam Flores

U.S. President Donald Trump and Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. attend a Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission event, in the East Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 22, 2025. Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters The Trump administration on Tuesday said it was freezing $10 billion in federal grant funds for certain child care and family assistance programs in five states because of “serious concerns about widespread fraud” in state-administered programs. All five states targeted by the freeze — California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, and New York — are led by Democrats. The action applies to three programs overseen by the U.S. Health and Human Services Department‘s Administration for Children and Families: Child Care and Development Fund, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, and Social Services Block Grant. The move comes a day after Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz dropped his bid for a third term amid political fallout from widespread fraud in social service programs in the state, including child-care services, which a federal prosecutor has estimated cost more …

Hong Kong police freezes 3M in assets from Chinese businessmen Chen Zhi

Hong Kong police freezes $353M in assets from Chinese businessmen Chen Zhi

Published by skeptic

More assets belonging to Chinese-Cambodian businessman Chen Zhi have reportedly been seized in the wake of an investigation into gambling fraud, money laundering and ‘pig butchering’ scams. According to the South China Morning Post, Hong Kong Police has frozen HKD 2.75 billion ($353 million) in assets, including cash, stocks and funds, after investigations linked the previously sanctioned Chinese-Cambodian businessman Chen Zhi to a network of entities in the country. This latest round of allegations has also triggered regulatory measures and the resignation of a number of auditors and directors from his firms. US-sanctioned Chen Zhi’s Hong Kong firms rocked by resignations and frozen assets Police freeze HK$2.75 billion in assets tied to tycoon amid investigations into alleged telecoms fraud, money laundering and “pig butchering” scamshttps://t.co/0V6mHMd56E pic.twitter.com/izOkdEph8y — Bien Perez (@BienPerez) January 4, 2026 The assets are believed to have been generated from criminal activities throughout his alleged fraud and money‑laundering network. This comes after an international partnership of intelligence agencies united to take Chen down in October 2025, before Hong Kong and Singaporean authorities seized …