I could not agree more with your assessment of Tether as a ticking time bomb.

I would love to know the real reason the Friedman/Tether relationship ended. The way I see it, there are two likely reasons: 1) The auditors were asking too many questions (i.e. it was likely they were going to uncover the scam) and Tether called it off OR 2) The auditors discovered the fraud and didn't want to issue an opinion so they ended the audit.

I lean more towards option 2. If I were Friedman I wouldn't want to be associated with a negative event in the crypto space. Especially when it sets a precedent for future audits of companies in the crypto space. No company will want to hire the auditors that both destroys a crypto asset and, most likely, brings down one of the biggest crypto exchanges.

I am a CPA and auditor at one of the big global accounting firms. I have seen this same type of activity happen a few times in the past (not to me personally, but to some of my colleagues). It usually results when the auditor finds a problem and the client refuses to acknowledge it's a problem. Instead of getting involved in the scandal and opening the door for legal exposure, the auditor declines to issue an opinion and severs the relationship with the client. If Friedman issues a negative audit report and Tether disagrees, they could (and probably would) sue Friedman for various reasons, even if they are hiding a scandal or fraud. Frankly, Tether is just a ticking time bomb, and it is in Friedman's best interest to distance themselves from the blast as much as possible.