FOIA Update
June 3, 2024

WASHINGTON – Empower Oversight is again pressing the Securities and Exchange Commission for additional records regarding the public declarations that multiple cryptocurrencies were not a security by both William Hinman, the former director of the Corporate Finance Division, and Jay Clayton, the former Chairman of the SEC.

Through previous Freedom of Information Act requests, Empower Oversight has already uncovered and referred to the Inspector General evidence of ethical issues involving Hinman and Clayton. However, Empower Oversight believes that Clayton likely “largely avoided using his SEC email for his SEC work,” and staff “may have arranged meetings or sent communications for him.” Empower cited the recent revelations that a high-level National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases official intentionally avoided disclosure of his emails under FOIA by using personal email and deleting correspondence.

Empower Oversight’s new FOIA seeks and records, communications, invites, and notes, among other things, between numerous immediate staff members of Clayton as they relate to several cryptocurrencies, companies and domain names.

For a copy of the full letter, click here.

For for information on Empower’s SEC oversight, click here.