Tether.bet Licence Obtained With Forged Documents, Probe Finds

Tether.bet's Curaçao licence was obtained with falsified paperwork. Democracy for Sale traced the claim to Hon Kong Yong, a Malaysia-based accountant named as the defunct operator's owner.

Yong submitted a 2020 sale document for a £3.75m Kensington property as proof of wealth. He also declared a net worth of £8m. His annual pay at the time? £40,000. The file came to light after Lilith Wittman breached Curaçao Gaming Authority systems last month, exposing thousands of records on licence holders and their business plans. The Times then approached the couple named as sellers of the Kensington house. The retired French pair had never met Yong. Never heard of him either.

Other details don't help. Yong was declared bankrupt in 2016. He's also tied to George Cottrell, a close ally of Nigel Farage whose lawyers have described him as a permissible donor to Reform UK. Yong owns Salon Privé, a private members club in Montenegro that Cottrell reportedly frequents. Tether.bet was headquartered in the same country.

For affiliates, the lesson is blunt: a Curaçao paper licence has never been a due-diligence check. Verify who actually owns the brand before you send traffic.

Tether.bet closed in August. Its domain briefly pushed visitors to a partner platform, NNVIP88, and is now blocked for UK users. Labour Party chair Bridget Phillipson had called for a Gambling Commission investigation into the firm soon after the shutdown, amid claims Cottrell acted as an intermediary connecting high-stakes UK VIP punters to the site.

Cottrell denies any operating role. His lawyers said he holds no interest in Tether.bet, has never been a shareholder, director, employee or consultant of any company owning it, never controlled a management or bank account, never solicited clients in any jurisdiction and had no hand in running operations. They added that his relationship with the brand was limited to that of a customer, and that he knows and is friends with its owner.