A government accountability group is taking aim at potential conflicts of interest involving former top SEC officials and their ties to Simpson Thacher & Bartlett … and the firm’s ties to the crypto industry.
The group, Empower Oversight Whistleblowers and Research, sued the SEC last week seeking information about communications between Simpson Thacher and former SEC Division of Corporate Finance Director William Hinman and former acting Enforcement Director Marc Berger.
Husch Blackwell partners Michael Schrier and Scott Glabe are representing Empower Oversight in the suit.
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Empower Oversight’s lawsuit also seeks communications between former SEC Chair Jay Clayton and the cryptocurrency hedge fund One River Asset Management that he now advises.
The group also wants to see communications between Hinman and Berger, while they were at the SEC, and the industry group Enterprise Ethereum Alliance, of which Simpson Thacher is a member. The complaint also requests records related to whether the two lawyers sought SEC ethics advice concerning those communications.
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