The supervisory organization Empower Overseas Whistleblowers&Research (EMPOWR) has filed a lawsuit against the Foreign Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), requiring the agency to comply with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in order to obtain communication between former SEC officials, their ex boyfriend, and future employers

EMPOWR claimed in the lawsuit that former senior officials of the Foreign Securities and Exchange Commission had implicit interests in digital currencies. The lawsuit specifically mentions former Chairman of the Foreign Securities and Exchange Commission, Jay Clayton, former head of law enforcement, Mark Berger, and former CFO of the company, Sperry Hinman. According to the lawsuit:

The required records will reveal whether there was any transfer of interest by former senior officials of the Foreign Securities and Exchange Commission when announcing whether some digital currencies belong to securities, thereby being controlled by the US Securities Fair

Hinman was a partner at Simpson Thacher&Bartlett LLC law firm before joining the Foreign Securities and Exchange Commission in 2017. He returned to the company after leaving the Foreign Securities and Exchange Commission in October 2020

Berger left the Foreign Securities and Exchange Commission in 2021 and became a partner of Simpson Thacher. Clayton added One River Investment Management, a digital currency financial derivative, in 2021. EMPOWR says:

This kind of thing has raised serious doubts about the potential benefits of regulatory authorities' new cryptocurrency market transmission

Simpson Thacher is a member of the Ethereum Alliance that advocates for organizing companies, which attempts to "boost the application of enterprise Ethereum". According to EMPOWR, it is reported that Hinman won millions of dollars from our law firm during his tenure at the Foreign Securities and Exchange Commission.

EMPOWR believes that Hinman's constant contact with old law firms may be a contradiction, as during the period of the Foreign Securities and Exchange Commission, Hinman delivered a wonderful speech titled "Digital Asset Trading: When Howey Encounters Gary (Plastic)". In his speech, he pointed out that Ethereum is a commodity, and in the future, "Ethereum's value has significantly increased." The documents related to that speech were also subject to a prolonged legal and regulatory battle between the foreign Securities and Exchange Commission and the Ripple Laboratory, which accused the Ripple XRP (XRP) coin sales business of violating US securities laws.

The current lawsuit is a brand new one in a series of lawsuits, which can be traced back to the initial Freedom of Information Act requirements of eight categories of records submitted by EMPOWR in August 2021. EMPOWR reported in December after not receiving a response from the foreign securities and exchange commission to the request. The Foreign Securities and Exchange Commission then issued an "unrecorded" response to four of the eight categories, but later recognized that this response was incorrect and found 1000 pages of records from the searched email.

After attempting to expand the scope of document search by the US Securities and Exchange Commission, EMPOWR proposed new Freedom of Information Act requirements in December 2022. The current prosecution is attempting to accept a response to this request.

Journal: Digital Currency Control: Does Gamo Gensler, the current chairman of the Foreign Securities and Exchange Commission, have the final say?