Swan Bitcoin moved its dispute over 2040 Energy into a new legal phase, when it filed an ex parte application in the Southern District of New York seeking permission to subpoena Cantor Fitzgerald and its former chief executive, Howard Lutnick. The request is aimed at gathering documents and testimony that Swan says could support related proceedings already under way in the British Virgin Islands and England.
The filing was made under 28 U.S.C. § 1782 and centers on 2040 Energy, the former Bitcoin-mining joint venture between Swan and Tether. At the heart of the application is Swan’s effort to trace who controlled key decisions around governance, asset transfers and mining operations during a period of internal conflict in 2024.
Lutnick on the Hot Seat, Yet Again
This week Swan Bitcoin filed an ex parte application in the Southern District of New York seeking court authorization to subpoena Cantor Fitzgerald and its former CEO, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick @HowardLutnick, under 28 U.S.C. § 1782.… pic.twitter.com/ABEaVHYbuV
— Cory 🦢 Real Bitcoin @ Swan.com (@CorySwan) March 25, 2026
Swan is trying to widen the evidentiary record
According to the filing, tensions began to intensify after meetings in June 2024 between Swan chief executive Cory Klippsten and Cantor Fitzgerald during early IPO discussions. Swan alleges that what followed was not a routine business breakdown but a coordinated effort to weaken the joint venture from inside the company.
The company says that by mid-2024 a group of employees, including then-head of business development Michael Holmes and then-chief investment officer Raphael Zagury, worked with Tether personnel to undermine 2040 Energy. Swan’s account presents the dispute as an internal fracture that quickly turned into a fight over control of a live mining business.
That conflict, Swan says, accelerated on August 8, 2024, when thirteen employees resigned within hours of each other after downloading thousands of confidential documents. Within days, those former employees had formed Proton Management, which Swan alleges soon took its place as Tether’s partner.
The asset sale is central to the dispute
Swan argues that the most consequential step came later that year, when Tether-appointed directors approved a related-party transaction involving 2040 Energy’s mining assets. The filing says those assets were sold in December 2024 to a Tether subsidiary at what Swan describes as a significantly undervalued price.
Cantor Fitzgerald and Howard Lutnick are now being drawn into the matter because Swan believes their records could clarify how those decisions were made. Swan’s application points to Cantor Fitzgerald’s advisory role on mining and investment matters involving Tether, while also citing Lutnick’s long-standing financial connection to the stablecoin issuer.
The filing also references a public UCC filing from October 2025 that identified Tether as collateral agent for Dynasty Trust A, which Swan links to the Lutnick family trust. That detail is being used to support Swan’s argument that communications and financial records held in the United States may be relevant to the foreign cases.
Why the discovery fight matters beyond the lawsuit
Swan’s position is that access to those records could help explain who directed asset transfers and operational choices at 2040 Energy. Those questions are not just legal in nature, but also operational, because control over mining equipment, deployment schedules and power contracts would have shaped the venture’s scale and efficiency.
The court’s next decision will determine whether Swan can use U.S. discovery to strengthen its cases abroad. If the subpoenas are authorized, the resulting record could influence not only the foreign proceedings but also how future mining joint ventures document governance, related-party transactions and control rights.