Wall Street Journal: 86% of Tether's shares were controlled by 4 people in 2018

A four-person team controlled 86% of Tether Holdings in 2018, according to a document reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. Among them, Devasini held about 43% of Tether's shares in 2018, and the CEO of Bitfinex and Tether was Jean-Louis van der Velde and the general counsel was Stuart Hoegner, each holding about 15% of Tether's shares in 2018. Besides sharing several owners and executives, Bitfinex and Tether are also closely linked in other ways. In 2016, Bitfinex was hacked and lost bitcoins worth $65 million at the time. The hack resulted in Tether’s fourth largest owner, a businessman of British and Thai nationality (known as Christopher Harborne in the UK and Chakrit Sakunkrit in Thailand). Together, the four own about 86% of Tether through their own holdings and another related company, the documents show. Through a series of transactions with Tether and its affiliates, Mr. Harborne began owning about 12% of Tether, according to documents and people familiar with the matter.