{"id":54506,"date":"2021-12-10T20:12:21","date_gmt":"2021-12-10T18:12:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=54506"},"modified":"2025-09-03T20:46:38","modified_gmt":"2025-09-03T17:46:38","slug":"lawsuit-alleges-sec-conflicts-of-interest-linked-to-former-officials-and-ethereum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/lawsuit-alleges-sec-conflicts-of-interest-linked-to-former-officials-and-ethereum\/","title":{"rendered":"Lawsuit Alleges SEC Conflicts of Interest Linked to Former Officials and Ethereum"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Empower Oversight, a civil-rights nonprofit, has demanded that the <span data-descr=\"\u041a\u043e\u043c\u0438\u0441\u0441\u0438\u044f \u043f\u043e \u0446\u0435\u043d\u043d\u044b\u043c \u0431\u0443\u043c\u0430\u0433\u0430\u043c \u0438 \u0431\u0438\u0440\u0436\u0430\u043c \u0421\u0428\u0410\" class=\"old_tooltip\">SEC<\/span> disclose documents concerning a potential conflict of interest in the actions of former senior officials. The suit was filed in the Eastern District of Virginia.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The SEC failed to comply with six of the eight categories of documents in Empower Oversight\u2019s FOIA request. According to the SEC, searches for two of the categories found no records.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Empower Oversight (@EMPOWR_us) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/EMPOWR_us\/status\/1469318138722406403?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 10, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The plaintiff seeks access to documents under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cStatements by some former SEC officials about whether specific cryptocurrencies are securities and, consequently, subject to SEC regulation, raise serious questions about potential conflicts of interest.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>In August, the advocacy group <a href=\"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/news\/media-point-to-potential-conflicts-of-interest-in-sec-case-against-ripple\">alleged an affiliation<\/a> of former SEC corporate-finance chief William Hinman, former SEC chair Jay Clayton, and the head of the unit that filed the Ripple suit, Mark Berger.<\/p>\n<p>Hinman <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sec.gov\/news\/speech\/speech-hinman-061418\">stated<\/a> in 2018 that Ethereum does not possess the characteristics of a security. According to Empower Oversight, at the same time the official \u201creceived millions of dollars from his former employer, the law firm Simpson Thacher,\u201d linked to the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance.<\/p>\n<p>Clayton, who after leaving the SEC <a href=\"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/news\/investor-who-put-600-million-into-a-bitcoin-hedge-fund-hires-former-sec-chief-as-adviser\">joined the regulatory affairs advisory board<\/a> of the hedge fund One River Asset Management, argued that Bitcoin is not a security. A year later the head of the agency voiced a similar view on Ethereum.<\/p>\n<p>In the summer, Empower Oversight sought the disclosure of Hinman\u2019s and Berger\u2019s correspondence with Simpson Thacher and the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance during their tenures, as well as Clayton\u2019s contacts with One River prior to his departure from the SEC.<\/p>\n<p>Empower Oversight said the Commission had \u201cfailed to comply with six of the eight FOIA requests\u201d for document disclosures.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The SEC failed to comply with six of the eight categories of documents in Empower Oversight\u2019s FOIA request. According to the SEC, searches for two of the categories found no records.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Empower Oversight (@EMPOWR_us) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/EMPOWR_us\/status\/1469318138722406403?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 10, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cAccording to the SEC, searches for two categories of records found no results,\u201d the statement read.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The advocates filed suit seeking to compel the Commission to \u201cimmediately provide\u201d the information for each of the six requests.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier Fox Business published <a href=\"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/news\/media-point-to-potential-conflicts-of-interest-in-sec-case-against-ripple\">a sweeping investigation<\/a> into the SEC\u2019s case against Ripple. Journalists concluded that the staff behind the filing of the suit may have been affiliated with Ethereum.<\/p>\n<p>In August Ripple <a href=\"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/news\/former-sec-official-warned-ripple-that-xrp-could-be-deemed-a-security\">managed to compel Hinman to testify in court<\/a> despite <a href=\"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/news\/ripple-wins-subpoena-for-former-sec-official-to-testify\">the SEC\u2019s attempts<\/a> to have the motion denied.<\/p>\n<p>Later, fintech head Brad Garlinghouse described Ethereum\u2019s success as the result of the SEC\u2019s favorable stance <a href=\"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/news\/garlinghouse-links-ethereums-success-to-secs-favorable-stance\">.<\/p>\n<p>Ripple lawyers <a href=\"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/news\/ripple-calls-sec-defence-aggressive-and-seeks-to-strip-it-of-its-deliberative-process-privilege\">described the Commission\u2019s defence as aggressive<\/a> and said the agency must justify withholding information from the court for each requested document.<\/p>\n<p>Subscribe to ForkLog news on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/forklog\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Facebook<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Empower Oversight, a civil-rights nonprofit, has demanded that the SEC disclose documents concerning a potential conflict of interest in the actions of former senior officials. The suit was filed in the Eastern District of Virginia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":54507,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"1","news_style_id":"1","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1162,112,128],"class_list":["post-54506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-court-cases","tag-ripple","tag-sec"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"23","promo_type":"1","layout_type":"1","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54506"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54506\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54508,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54506\/revisions\/54508"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}