An alleged cartel boss is extradited from Dubai; India moves to clamp down on counterfeit cancer drugs; and more.

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Cryptocurrency giant Tether is likely one of the most valuable private companies on earth. It’s also among the most opaque of its size, with an estimated value of $200 billion. 

The company mints the world’s most widely used crypto token: USDT, a stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar that has become the backbone of a parallel banking system.

But unlike publicly owned companies of a similar scale, which typically need to disclose company ownership, Tether has never given a full picture publicly of its ownership makeup.

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists decided to take a look. In lieu of a formal public disclosure from the firm, our reporters examined a mix of public records and internal company files to trace clues of who owns how much of the firm. We found unusual changes.

A man walks past a shopfront in Hong Kong displaying the Tether and Bitcoin cryptocurrency logos in November 2025. Image: Lam Yik/Bloomberg via Getty Images.

“It’s a concern to have that much wealth and power built up within a small group of people with so little disclosure,” says Renée Jones, a law professor at Boston College. “It makes the jobs of regulators and government investigators harder when massive companies are not subject to a public disclosure regime in any country.” 

One of the original missions of cryptocurrency was to build a financial system free from government oversight. As it pushes the bounds of corporate privacy, Tether may hint at a future — or a present — in which people can engage in anonymous financial transactions using private money minted by multinational behemoths that answer to few government authorities. Read more here.

ANTI-COUNTERFEIT MEASURES IN INDIA
All cancer drugs sold in India must carry a QR code or barcode on their packaging by July 2027. The new safety measure would be used to trace medicine from factory to patient. It follows an investigation by the Indian Express as part of ICIJ’s Cancer Calculus, which showed Indian counterfeiters had exploited the high price of the cancer drug Keytruda.

ALLEGED CARTEL BOSS EXTRADITED
An armed escort took Daniel Kinahan from Dubai to Dublin’s Special Criminal Court last week. Authorities allege that he oversaw a global narco-trafficking operation tied to a bloody gang war in his native Ireland. Kinahan will await trial in prison. 

KAZAKHSTAN ALLEGES BIG OIL CORRUPTION COST BILLIONS
In a confidential arbitration, the Kazakh government has claimed that international oil giants awarded $10.7 billion in Kashagan oil field contracts that were compromised by self-dealing, unjustified cost increases, or bribery. ICIJ’s 2024 Caspian Cabals investigation covered how, over the last 30 years, Western companies, desperate for new oil reserves, ignored corruption risks to keep oil moving.

Thanks for reading!

Carmen Molina Acosta
ICIJ's digital editor

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