[ceejayoz]

> if they did this, then what people are suspecting is true.

No, this is what they could do if they were legit.

Issuing and selling a new Tether when it's over $1.00 on an exchange keeps all their promises and lets them make the difference as profit. If they sell the Tether for $1.05, they put a dollar in reserves and the $0.05 is profit.

Same for buying a sub-$1.00 Tether from an exchange. They've taken a Tether out of circulation, which means they can treat the backing USD as theirs again, which means the gap between the $0.98 they paid and the $1.00 value is profit.

All of this requires them to actually have the capital to do so, though, and I'd consider the lack of Tether-issued buy/sell orders at these values to be a hint at the real scenario - they don't have the capital they claim.