Four men owned 86% of Tether as of 2018, according to investigatory documents viewed by the Wall Street Journal.

The documents from 2021 probes of Tether by the New York Attorney General and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission reveal the previously unknown ownership structure of the secretive issuer of the world’s largest stablecoin. Tether’s USDT stablecoin is a key piece of infrastructure in the crypto world, easing the movement of money in the industry, and yet the people behind it have not always been forthcoming about how they operate.

Tether began from separate companies led by ex-plastic surgeon Giancarlo Devasini and former child actor Brock Pierce. Devasini, who helped develop crypto exchange Bitfinex and is now its CFO, owned about 43% of Tether in 2018, according to the documents seen by the Journal.

Two other executives of both Bitfinex and Tether, CEO Jean-Louis van Der Velde and chief counsel Stuart Hoegner, each owned roughly 15% of Tether in 2018, the documents revealed.