- Empower Oversight backed a motion seeking to unseal a doc from an SEC ex-boss.
- The anti-graft agency said the SEC often denied access to info of public interest.
- A motion against the SEC said that the regulator selectively applies the rules.
The US whistleblower and anti-corruption watchdog, Empower Oversight, complained that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has repeatedly denied transparency organizations access to information of public interest, especially regarding the crypto industry.
Consequently, the anti-graft agency has supported a motion by a crypto law firm that seeks to unseal a document regarding the former SEC executive chairman, William Hinman.
Jayson Foster, the founder of Empower Oversight, expressed that the public deserves answers from the SEC as to what exactly the agency knew about Hinman’s speech and when they knew it.
Foster further noted that the SEC blocked multiple attempts by Empower Oversight to uncover conflicts of interest and ethical questions at the agency. Empower Oversight recounted how it opposed the SEC’s motion for summary judgment in an ongoing FOIA lawsuit over documents related to selective enforcement in cryptocurrency cases.
On Tuesday, Forbes contributor and policy researcher Roslyn Layton filed an amended motion to gain access to the contested Hinman documents in the SEC’s case against Ripple. Attorney James K. Filan, who has followed the lawsuit closely, tweeted that the initial filing contained erroneous claims.
In the motion, Layton argued that the US regulator appears inconsistent in applying regulatory laws. According to her, the SEC considers Ethereum’s native token, ETH, as entirely outside the securities laws while seeking billions in penalties from Ripple’s virtually identical offering for supposedly violating those laws.
“That inconsistency has given rise to grave concerns about potential conflicts of interest because Hinman had a financial stake in promoting Ethereum to the exclusion of competing coins like XRP,” the motion read.
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