{"entity":{"id":29186,"slug":"ifinex","name":"iFinex Inc.","type":"company","role":"Hong Kong–registered parent of Tether and Bitfinex","description":"iFinex is the umbrella company controlling both Tether Limited and the Bitfinex exchange. Beneficial ownership is concentrated in a small group whose individual stakes have never been disclosed in a public filing.","imageUrl":null,"createdAt":"2026-05-03T02:04:32.382Z","updatedAt":"2026-06-18T09:05:21.753Z"},"electedOffice":null,"significance":{"score":2.4,"components":{"totalFindings":0,"connectionDegree":0.4,"recentFindings90d":0,"activeResearchJobs":0,"goblinAttributions":2,"recentSyntheses90d":0,"moneyFlowChainsTotal":0,"closedLoopMemberships":0,"moneyFlowHopsRecent90d":0},"computedAt":"2026-10-15T01:32:54.708Z"},"facts":[{"id":43401,"text":"The British Virgin Islands' April 2026 transparency framework has not yet compelled the public disclosure of iFinex's consolidated group-level revenue or net profit.","confidence":"secondary","dateOccurred":"2026-06-15","source":null},{"id":43400,"text":"As of May 2026, iFinex Inc. has not voluntarily released a consolidated audit or group-level financial statement to any public market or third-party ratings agency.","confidence":"primary","dateOccurred":"2026-06-15","source":null},{"id":41367,"text":"iFinex Inc. is currently marked as 'Active' in the BVI Financial Services Commission system but remains a non-filer of financial statements in any public U.S. or BVI database as of early 2026.","confidence":"secondary","dateOccurred":"2026-06-15","source":null},{"id":48329,"text":"As of April 1, 2026, the BVI's legitimate interest access regime allows journalists, academics, and civil society groups to request beneficial ownership information for BVI companies including iFinex, but only for holders of ≥25% interests, with a $75 fee per company, a requirement to demonstrate AML/CTF purpose, and a five-business-day company objection window—and beneficial owners can file advance exemptions from disclosure on grounds including risk of kidnapping, violence, or intimidation.","confidence":"primary","dateOccurred":"2026-04-01","source":null},{"id":41365,"text":"As of April 1, 2026, the British Virgin Islands allows third parties with a 'legitimate interest' to apply for access to beneficial ownership registries, ending the era of absolute registry secrecy for BVI entities like iFinex.","confidence":"primary","dateOccurred":"2026-04-01","source":null},{"id":49079,"text":"iFinex Inc. filed filing with the SEC on 2026-03-31. Accession number: N/A.","confidence":"inferential","dateOccurred":"2026-03-31","source":{"title":"SEC EDGAR: filing — iFinex Inc. (2026-03-31)","url":"https://efts.sec.gov/LATEST/search-index?q=%22iFinex%20Inc.%22&dateRange=custom&forms=4,SC%2013D,SC%2013G,DEF%2014A,10-K,10-Q","publication":"SEC EDGAR"}},{"id":48328,"text":"The 2024 BVI Business Companies (Amendment) Act requires every BVI company to file its register of members with the BVI Registrar of Corporate Affairs within 30 days of incorporation, but the register 'will not be publicly available unless the company elects to do so' and the beneficial ownership register 'is not publicly accessible'—creating a dual-filing system where both shareholder lists and beneficial ownership data are held by the government but withheld from public view.","confidence":"primary","dateOccurred":"2025-01-02","source":null},{"id":39898,"text":"Tether's quarterly 'Consolidated Reserves Reports' (CRR) do not include a 'Statement of Cash Flows,' a standard accounting component that would explicitly detail intercompany lending activities.","confidence":"primary","dateOccurred":"2024-06-15","source":null},{"id":48331,"text":"The WSJ accessed a cache of documents from the 2021 NYAG and CFTC investigations revealing that as of 2018, four men controlled 86% of Tether Holdings Limited: Giancarlo Devasini (~43%, later estimated at 47% by Forbes), Jean-Louis van der Velde (~15%), Stuart Hoegner (~15%), and Christopher Harborne/Chakrit Sakunkrit (~13%)—information obtained through subpoena power, not voluntary disclosure.","confidence":"secondary","dateOccurred":"2023-02-02","source":null},{"id":39381,"text":"The 2021 CFTC consent order against Tether and Bitfinex established a documented period during which iFinex-controlled Tether's USDT reserves were not fully backed by U.S. dollars as marketed.","confidence":"primary","dateOccurred":"2021-10-15","source":{"title":"CFTC Orders Tether and Bitfinex to Pay Fines Totalling $42.5 Million","url":"https://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressReleases/8450-21","publication":"Commodity Futures Trading Commission"}},{"id":41366,"text":"U.S. court records from the 2021 NYAG settlement identify DigFinex Inc. as the majority owner of both iFinex Inc. and Tether Holdings Limited, establishing a common ownership nexus above the operating subsidiaries.","confidence":"primary","dateOccurred":"2021-02-23","source":null},{"id":40872,"text":"The 2021 New York Attorney General settlement specifically named iFinex Inc., Tether Holdings Limited, and Bitfinex affiliates as the responding parties, formalising the legal identification of the iFinex group as the corporate parent.","confidence":"primary","dateOccurred":"2021-02-23","source":{"title":"Attorney General James Ends Virtual Currency Trading Platform Bitfinex's Illegal Activities in New York","url":"https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/2021/attorney-general-james-ends-virtual-currency-trading-platform-bitfinexs-illegal","publication":"New York State Office of the Attorney General"}},{"id":48332,"text":"The NYAG's investigation and the 2020 appellate decision in Matter of James v. iFinex Inc. formally established that 'nonparty DigFinex Inc. is the majority owner of iFinex and Tether Holdings' and that 'a small group of executives and employees, some of whom are or have been located in New York, operates all respondents'—identifying the controlling entity but not disclosing individual ownership percentages.","confidence":"primary","dateOccurred":"2020-07-09","source":null},{"id":48330,"text":"The Paradise Papers (2017) revealed that Bitfinex executives Giancarlo Devasini and Philip Potter were beneficial owners of Tether, contradicting the companies' previous insistence that their operations were separate—but iFinex had already disclosed this shared ownership in an April 2017 U.S. federal court filing in an unrelated case against Wells Fargo, a disclosure that went entirely unnoticed until the ICIJ investigation.","confidence":"primary","dateOccurred":"2017-04-05","source":null},{"id":41019,"text":"Evidence gap: The corporate registry filings for iFinex Inc. (British Virgin Islands) and the chain of beneficial ownership above the named directors are not accessible through any U.S. public-records system.","confidence":"inferential","dateOccurred":null,"source":null},{"id":40713,"text":"iFinex's Bitfinex subsidiary was the venue from which Tether's USDT was first issued in 2014, and the two firms have shared overlapping ownership and senior management throughout the period.","confidence":"secondary","dateOccurred":null,"source":null},{"id":40714,"text":"iFinex consolidated control of the Tether issuer means a single private corporate group controls the issuance of the largest dollar-pegged stablecoin in the world.","confidence":"primary","dateOccurred":null,"source":null},{"id":39899,"text":"A significant portion of Tether’s commercial paper and secured loan holdings have historically been linked to entities with overlapping ownership with iFinex, though specific counterparties remain redacted in public attestations.","confidence":"secondary","dateOccurred":null,"source":null},{"id":39384,"text":"Evidence gap: iFinex does not file consolidated financial statements with any public regulator; group-level revenue, profit, and capital structure are not publicly verifiable.","confidence":"inferential","dateOccurred":null,"source":null},{"id":39156,"text":"Evidence gap: Capital flows between iFinex's Tether and Bitfinex subsidiaries — including the 2018-2019 line of credit at the centre of the NYAG settlement — have only been partially documented in litigation, not in routine financial disclosure.","confidence":"inferential","dateOccurred":null,"source":null},{"id":39154,"text":"iFinex Inc. is the common parent of Tether Limited and the Bitfinex exchange, registered in Hong Kong with operations historically routed through the British Virgin Islands.","confidence":"secondary","dateOccurred":null,"source":null},{"id":39155,"text":"Evidence gap: The ultimate beneficial owners of iFinex have never been disclosed in any public regulatory filing in any jurisdiction.","confidence":"inferential","dateOccurred":null,"source":null}],"connections":[{"id":11474,"relationshipType":"subsidiary","description":"iFinex Inc. is the parent company of Tether Limited.","confidence":"primary","firstDocumented":"2014","lastDocumented":null,"other":{"id":9879,"name":"Tether","slug":"tether","type":"company"}}],"contradictions":[],"permalink":"https://www.goblinhouse.net/entity/ifinex","timelineUrl":"https://www.goblinhouse.net/entity/ifinex/timeline"}