The crypto community is petitioning for the U.S. SEC Chairman Gary Gensler to be formally investigated for his possible ties with the FTX crypto exchange.
Recently, the legal news website Crypto-Law.com announced on Twitter that it had helped send more than 9,000 letters to U.S. Congress, requesting an inquiry into Gensler’s possible involvement in the bankrupt exchange. According to the petition form, “evidence has emerged” that Gensler had contacted ex-FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, who orchestrated the exchange prior to its failure last week.
Gensler has spoken with Sam Bankman-Fried and two other FTX employees in March, according to SEC filings. The filing read that the group discussed “the unique risks associated with custody of digital asset securities.” IEX Exchange’s four members, which would subsequently receive funding from FTX, were also present.
There is no evidence that FTX was granted the consideration of “conditional no-action relief” approach, which the SEC defined as “a procedure that enables registrants to receive certain assurances when their conduct may be entered into the legal grey zone of regulation, or even may be technically proscribed, but does not raise the policy concerns underlying a specific rule.”
The meeting resulted in a “45-minute lecture by Gensler,” who made no guarantees and wanted clear insights from both exchanges, based on the report from Fox Business correspondent Charles Gasparino. He wrote that no indication of approval was made.
