B 计划，一年后：RSI 关于 Lugano-Tether 合作伙伴关系的报告

RSI（意大利语瑞士广播电视台）的长篇报道，由 Falò 的编辑人员制作，该节目与 RAI 的报道类似

A lengthy report by RSI, the Italian-language Swiss Radio and Television, produced by the editorial staff of Falò, a programme similar to RAI’s Report, turned the spotlight on Lugano’s Plan B, the joint initiative between the city’s municipal administration and the company Tether to promote and experiment with the use of blockchain technology on a large scale in the city, seeking to take stock one and a half years after the project’s launch.

瑞士意大利语广播电视台 RSI 的一份长篇报道，由 Falò 的编辑人员制作，该节目与 RAI 的报道类似，将焦点转向了卢加诺的 B 计划，该计划是该市市政当局与 Tether 公司的联合倡议在该市大规模推广和试验区块链技术的使用，力求在项目启动一年半后进行盘点。

The focus of the TV programme was on the city’s partner, Tether, which is the world’s largest stablecoin, launched by the company Tether Limited Inc. in 2014, which has always been criticised for the lack of transparency and verifiability of its declared fiat reserves.

该电视节目的焦点是该市的合作伙伴 Tether，这是全球最大的稳定币，由 Tether Limited Inc. 公司于 2014 年推出，该公司一直因其申报的法定储备缺乏透明度和可验证性而受到批评。

The certification of reserves

储量证明

On its website, Theter Limited Inc. publishes the certification of reserves, i.e. a document that purports to prove the actual existence of the raised capital processed by a specialised company.

Theter Limited Inc. 在其网站上公布了储备金证明，即旨在证明由专业公司处理的筹集资金实际存在的文件。

After having changed several certifiers, the CSR informs us, all of dubious reputation, located between the Cayman Islands and the Bahamas, the company’s top management chose in recent years BDO Italia, a company based in Milan, a city 7,000 km away from Theter’s headquarters.

在更换了几家认证机构后，CSR 告诉我们，位于开曼群岛和巴哈马群岛之间的所有信誉可疑的公司的高层管理人员近年来选择了 BDO Italia，一家总部位于米兰的公司，该城市距离 Theter 总部 7,000 公里。

The certificate is only a ten-page document. Giancarlo Bellavia, an expert in economic criminal law, intervened in the news report by RSI, stating that it was a report by an auditing company on these reservations, highlighting the fact that none of them went to the Tether office, which provided the documentation on the basis of which the certificate was drawn up.

该证书只有十页的文件。经济刑法专家吉安卡洛·贝拉维亚 (Giancarlo Bellavia) 对 RSI 的新闻报道进行了干预，表示这是一家审计公司对这些保留意见的报告，并强调了这样一个事实：他们都没有前往 Tether 办公室，该办公室提供了有关这些保留意见的文件。制定证书的基础。

This documentation would attest to the presence of money, gold, bonds and a small amount of bitcoin for a total of 80 billion dollars and, therefore, summarises the process by which this document was arrived at: ‘Tether sends the papers to the company in Milan, which, after examining them, affirms that it has reserves of value totalling 80 billion dollars, thus having to trust a company that has no accounting because nothing is said about who the banks or depositaries of these reserves are because it is not written in the certification relating to them’. Professor Bellavia emphasises that normally when one asks an auditing company for a certificate, the latter should do a physical check and go to where the registered office is and examine whether there really is this money, and stresses that ’80 billion dollars is a lot in a bank on a beach’. At this point, the CSR reporter asks him the question: “Under these conditions, how can an auditing company certify?” and the professor replies that the auditors should be asked and continues by saying that if someone chooses for their business to go to the British Virgin Islands (BVI, where Tether is based) they do so “because they can say whatever they like, since no one checks”. At this point, the report informs that BDO Italy did not want to answer their questions and underlines the fact that in the last two years it has been sanctioned four times by the Italian authorities, who have imposed fines of more than EUR 1 million for violation of auditing standards.

这份文件将证明货币、黄金、债券和少量比特币的存在，总价值为 800 亿美元，因此总结了这份文件的形成过程：“Tether 将文件发送给公司米兰在检查后确认其拥有价值总计 800 亿美元的储备，因此不得不信任一家没有会计的公司，因为没有提及这些储备的银行或存管人是谁，因为它没有写在其中与他们相关的认证”。贝拉维亚教授强调，通常情况下，当你向审计公司索要证明时，后者应该进行实地检查，并前往注册办事处所在地，检查是否真的有这笔钱，并强调“800亿美元是一个很大的数字”。海滩上的银行”。此时，社会责任记者向他提问：“在这种情况下，审计公司如何进行认证？”教授回答说，应该询问审计员，并继续说，如果有人选择将他们的业务转移到英属维尔京群岛（BVI，Tether 的总部所在地），他们就会这样做，“因为他们可以说任何他们喜欢的事情，因为没有一个检查”。目前，报告指出，BDO Italy 不想回答他们的问题，并强调了这样一个事实：在过去两年中，该公司已四次受到意大利当局的制裁，并因违规行为被处以超过 100 万欧元的罚款。的审计标准。

In November 2022, the same company certified the balance sheets of Italy’s largest cryptocurrency platform The Rock Tradingas healthy , pointing outthe fact that after three months the company went bankrupt, leaving a hole of over 20 million euro and thousands of damaged customers (see cover image of the article).

2022 年 11 月，同一家公司证明意大利最大的加密货币平台 The Rock Trading 的资产负债表健康，并指出三个月后该公司破产，留下超过 2000 万欧元的资金缺口和数千名受损客户（见封面图片）文章的内容）。

Plan B, one year later

B计划，一年后

The RSI programme documented a lively meeting of the Lugano municipal council dedicated to Plan B, and among the various voices against it, the most significant was that of Danilo Baratti, leader of the Lugano Green group, who asked whether it was “appropriate to ally oneself with a company (Tether) whose ownership structure is unknown, which is not transparent about its own means, has no public balance sheet, is not subject to any control and audit body, and is based in a tax haven?”

RSI 节目记录了卢加诺市议会专门讨论 B 计划的一次热闹会议，在反对该计划的各种声音中，最重要的是卢加诺绿色组织领导人达尼洛·巴拉蒂 (Danilo Baratti) 的声音，他询问是否“适合与 B 计划结盟”。自己与一家所有权结构未知、自身手段不透明、没有公共资产负债表、不受任何控制和审计机构、且总部位于避税天堂的公司（Tether）合作？”

There, Michele Foletti, the mayor of Lugano (pictured above) responded by saying that blockchain technology is transparent, and makes it possible to check the origin of funding, pointing out that “the technological tool is neutral, the problem is the use that is made of it” and that in any case the City of Lugano has not put any money into this project.

卢加诺市市长 Michele Foletti（上图）回应称，区块链技术是透明的，可以检查资金来源，并指出“技术工具是中立的，问题是使用”并且无论如何，卢加诺市都没有向该项目投入任何资金。

The Wall Street Journal investigations

华尔街日报的调查

The CSR reporters highlighted the fact that Tether ‘is based in the British Virgin Islands (BVI), a notorious tax haven, a place with few rules and few controls’ and little is known about what the world’s largest stable coin company does and who is behind it. So they interviewed Ben Foldy, a journalist from the Wall Street Journal, who has conducted several investigations into Tether. Interviewed by the CSR reporters, he said that there are many unanswered questions about this company and its eponymous token, which is called a stable coin because its creators claimed that each Tether must be matched by one US

CSR 记者强调，Tether“总部位于英属维尔京群岛（BVI），这是一个臭名昭著的避税天堂，一个规则和控制都很少的地方”，人们对这家全球最大的稳定币公司的业务和是谁知之甚少。在它后面。于是他们采访了《华尔街日报》的记者 Ben Foldy，他曾对 Tether 进行过多次调查。接受CSR记者采访时，他表示，关于这家公司及其同名代币，还有很多悬而未决的问题，该代币之所以被称为稳定币，是因为它的创建者声称每一个Tether都必须与一个美国的代币相匹配。