Many in the crypto community believe that there are major conflicts of interest where government employees and crypto assets are concerned. This became a burning hot issue during the SEC vs Ripple Labs lawsuit. Especially, when XRP community members claimed that key SEC figures had connections with the Ethereum ecosystem.
Now, an action filed by Empower Oversight Whistleblowers & Research wants the SEC to comply with a Freedom of Information Act, to answer these exact questions.
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One might wonder – what does Empower Oversight want? Well, it’s a long list. The plaintiff referenced its earlier FOIA request and demanded that the SEC produce a number of documents. These included Hinman’s communications to and from Simpson Thacher, Enterprise Ethereum Alliance, and the SEC’s Office of the Ethics Counsel regarding payments from Simpson Thacher – covering the time between 2017 and 2020.
The FOIA request also wanted similar materials from former Acting Enforcement Director Marc P. Berger.
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Empower Oversight also wanted Clayton’s communications to and from One River Asset Management. Furthermore, the filing claimed that SEC actions were followed by Ether’s price rise and XRP’s price drop.