Ethereum Smart Contracts

Hello people hopefully smarter than me, I am a Bitcoin HODLer and I have a couple of questions about Ethereum smart contract fees. A family member of mine had $200k in an Ethereum liquidity pool (according to him), and it’s now being held as USDT in some wallet. He’s been in said pool for about 5 years AFAIK and claims he needs to pay $15k in gas fees to withdraw the USDT. I can front him the cash but this seems very odd to me that you cannot use the funds as a means of payment to make the said transaction. In short, I’m asking if my family member has been scammed and now I’m offering more money, or is this a legitimate liquidity pool, or is there a way for me to verify that it is. He sent me a screen shot of a “Ethereum-smart.com” if that’s familiar to anyone. Thanks in advance I hope I’ve made this clear enough.