Tether.bet Owner Obtained a Curaçao iGaming Licence Using Fake Documents, Democracy for Sale Investigation Says

The investigation by Democracy for Sale says the owner of Tether.bet secured a Curaçao iGaming licence using forged documents. For PSPs and acquirers, that is exactly the kind of counterparty history that matters when deciding whether a gaming merchant should be onboarded, monitored, or dropped.

1. The only source provided for this item is the Democracy for Sale investigation published at democracyforsale.substack.com. The headline claim is that the owner of Tether.bet received a Curaçao iGaming licence on the basis of fake documents.
2. No additional facts were provided in the source text about the licence number, the dates involved, the specific corporate entities behind the site, or whether Curaçao authorities have commented. So the useful takeaway for payments teams is narrower: this is a licensing-integrity red flag tied to a gambling merchant.
3. For high-risk payment providers, the practical question is not whether the brand looks active, but whether the licence file, beneficial ownership, and source documents stand up to enhanced due diligence. If a merchant’s regulatory footprint is built on forged paperwork, that usually becomes a bank-partner problem sooner or later.