Watchdog files complaint against SEC for not complying with FOIA on cryptocurrency

The Securities and Exchange Commission is facing a complaint filed by the watchdog group Empower Oversight, which is asking the courts to compel the federal agency to comply with a Freedom of Information Act request about potential conflicts of interest regarding cryptocurrency decisions. 

Empower Oversight filed the lawsuit Wednesday in D.C. District Court. after the SEC did not comply with a FOIA request that the watchdog submitted in August 2021.

The group asked the SEC to provide all communications between senior agency officials and their former and future employers regarding cryptocurrencies.

The request came after former SEC Director William Hinman received millions of dollars in compensation from his former employer as he guided the government's decisions on cryptocurrency, according to Empower Oversight.

The watchdog filed another lawsuit in December 2021 seeking for a Virginia-based federal court to compel the agency to respond to its FOIA request.  

"The SEC’s failure to provide any transparency on this issue is making a bad situation look even worse," Empower Oversight President Tristan Leavitt said. "[T]he SEC has consistently stonewalled any attempts to shed light on these clear conflicts of interest at the agency. This new suit against the SEC should force the SEC to do the searches it knows it must do under the law to give the public the answers we’ve long sought."

Madeleine Hubbard is an international correspondent for Just the News. Follow her on Twitter or Instagram.