Is USDT Solid or a Collapse Waiting to Happen?

I'd like to believe USDT, the largest stablecoin by market cap, has sufficient reserves, but we just don't know. At roughly $83 billion in value, they're supposed to have an equal amount in other assets. Though they've repeatedly claimed to hold adequate reserves, no audit has ever been done to prove this assertion. On their website (https://tether.to/en/transparency/#usdt) they allegedly have $86 billion in USD, EUR, and other currencies, creating an over $3 billion "Shareholder Capital Cushion." But there are red flags.

1. Tether has never released an audit. The closest they came was hiring Friedman LLP to analyze their books, but they quit before they were finished.
2. Tether has been repeatedly fined by the SEC and the CFTC. While I'm no fan of the SEC at the moment, they have a legitimate beef with them. Tether has been caught outright lying or misleading the public.
3. The founders are under investigation for bank fraud. The US DOJ is investigating a scheme to mislead banks about the source of their funds and to whom the funds are being moved to.
4. CEO Jan Ludovicus van der Velde seems to be a ghost. Information about him is difficult to find besides his LinkedIn profile, and his presence as the head of Tether is only felt second-hand.

I hope I'm wrong and that Tether is solid. But it seems a bit fishy. If I'm right and it's just smoke and mirrors, then the crypto-verse is in for perhaps its nastiest shock yet. Thought?