After Tether Said No, US DOJ's $225M Big Tuna Crypto Deal Leaves Out The Woman Who Froze The Wallet First

A proposed $225.3 million settlement in the US government's 'Operation Big Tuna' forfeiture case would resolve claims over a huge USDT haul but leave out Nivie (Nivedita) Kaul, the woman who says she first helped trace and freeze one of the main wallets in Turkey, according to a 6 August 2026 court filing.

The case centres on a wallet she says she helped trace and have seized in Turkey nearly two years before the US forfeiture complaint.

What the August Filing Actually Says

The joint status report in United States v. Approximately 225,364,961 USDT, filed in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, sets out an agreement in principle involving the US government, Infiniweb Technology Inc., Claimants 1–118 and Claimants 119–266.

The proposed settlement framework is intended to address the claims of those parties, while Kaul's motions remain outside it.

'In the avoidance of doubt, the proposed settlement framework would not address the motions filed by putative claimant Nivie Kaul,' the filing states. The case was stayed on 7 August pending further order, while the government moved on 14 August to strike Kaul's claim and answer.

The filing therefore leaves Kaul's separate challenge unresolved. Her dispute concerns the same wallet she says was frozen in Turkey before the US government later brought it into the forfeiture case.

After Tether Said No

Kaul, filed as Nivedita Kaul in the court docket, says she traced cryptocurrency stolen in a scam and sought a civil freeze from Tether. Her verified claim says Tether declined that request and indicated that a freeze would require a criminal investigation.

A separate US Secret Service voluntary-freeze request in January 2023 was also declined, according to Kaul's later filings.

She has stressed that the January request was not aimed at Wallet 0x82e, so it should not be treated as the same freeze request described in her claim.

On 11 August 2023, a Turkish criminal court ordered the seizure of Wallet 0x82e in Decision 2023/5986.

Kaul's filings say the wallet held more than $100 million at the time, and Tether later confirmed to Turkish authorities on 11 October 2023 that the wallet had been frozen.

The US government obtained a seizure warrant in May 2025 and filed its forfeiture complaint on 18 June 2025. The wallet was later included in the government's broader $225.3 million cryptocurrency seizure operation known as Operation Big Tuna.

The $87M Wallet Inside the $225M Case

In the US complaint, Wallet 0x82e is identified as Token Group G, valued at about $87.5 million at the time of the filing. Kaul is not claiming the entire wallet: her verified claim put her asserted interest at no less than $25,461,000 as of 17 March 2026.

The complaint identified more than 430 suspected victims and said investigators had interviewed about 60 of them. The government has disputed whether Kaul's claimed losses can be traced into the seized assets and whether the Turkish seizure order has the legal effect she argues it should have in the US forfeiture case.

Kaul's position is that the Turkish order predates the US warrant and should affect how her claimed interest is treated. The government is challenging both the tracing of her losses and the legal consequences she attaches to the Turkish proceeding.

Why DOJ Is Still Contesting Her Claim

Kaul filed her verified claim on 17 March 2026 and an answer on 7 April 2026. The government's later motion to strike those filings shows that her claim remains an active legal dispute, rather than a completed determination that she has no recoverable interest.

Infiniweb Technology Inc. is also a claimant in the case and is part of the proposed settlement framework. The settlement is therefore structured around competing claims to the seized cryptocurrency, rather than simply distributing the funds to victims already recognised by the government.

The proposed settlement terms have not been made public in a final court order, and the court has not ruled that the Turkish seizure gives Kaul priority over the US government or other claimants.

Until those issues are resolved, the woman who says she got Wallet 0x82e frozen in Turkey remains outside the agreement now being used to address the wider $225 million case.