Lawmakers are clashing with a regulator over access to records about the arrest of Sam Bankman-Fried.
The House Financial Services Committee “will consider all avenues to compel” the release of documents related to the arrest from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
The chairman of the committee, Patrick McHenry, and the chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, Bill Huizenga, said in a Wednesday (April 12) letter to SEC Chair Gary Gensler that Gensler has refused to provide documents relating to charges against FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried.
“We expect the staff recommendation memo to be produced immediately and all other material gathered as a result of the narrowed scope to be produced no later than 5:00 p.m. on April 17, 2023,” they wrote in the letter. “Failure to produce the requested information could result in the Committee considering using compulsory process, if necessary, to obtain the requested information.”
Reached for comment, an SEC spokesperson told PYMNTS via email: “Chair Gensler will respond to Members of Congress directly, rather than through the media.”
This House committee communication follows another letter sent by the lawmakers to Gensler on Feb. 10 in which they said they wanted to know more about the timing of the arrest of Bankman-Fried.
The founder of FTX was arrested by Bahamian authorities the night before he was to testify before the House Financial Services Committee.
Officials from both the SEC and the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York said that same evening that they would file charges against Bankman-Fried the next morning, and the arrest was made in anticipation of an extradition request.
Saying in their Feb. 10 letter that the timing of the charges and the arrest “raise serious questions about the SEC’s process and cooperation with the Department of Justice,” the lawmakers asked Gensler for records and communications relating to the charges.
Since then, the lawmakers said in their April 12 letter the SEC had provided a staff-level briefing that didn’t provide what was requested in the earlier letter, provided documents that were publicly available and not responsive to the questions, and has given no indication that the information is forthcoming.
In a Tuesday (April 11) letter to the lawmakers, Gensler said he was committed to “continue [the] ongoing review of Commission records and supplement the production of responsive materials and information, as appropriate,” according to the lawmakers’ most recent letter.
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