SEC May Be Probed for Prometheum ‘Backroom Deal’

Congressman Ritchie Torres has submitted a proper request to scrutinize the controversial connection between the Securities and Trade Fee (SEC) and cryptocurrency platform Prometheum, marking the most recent transfer within the authorized and political storm involving the SEC.

🚨 @SECGov is appearing like an overzealous visitors cop arbitrarily ticketing drivers whereas retaining the velocity restrict a secret.

It prefers to speak by enforcement somewhat than by guidelines or steerage. However that is no strategy to regulate digital property.

I am calling for an investigation. https://t.co/ZbiSk6oQ9F pic.twitter.com/n0hijAREDC

— Rep. Ritchie Torres (@RepRitchie) July 13, 2023

Torres dispatched letters on July 13 to the SEC’s Inspector Common Deborah Jeffrey and the Authorities Accountability Workplace’s Comptroller Common Gene Dodaro. He expressed frustration over the SEC’s lack of transparency in making use of securities legal guidelines to digital property, additional emphasizing the Fee’s use of enforcement over rulemaking or steerage:

“The SEC is like an overzealous visitors agent who arbitrarily tickets drivers for dashing whereas retaining everybody endlessly guessing in regards to the dashing restrict. Regulation by enforcement isn’t any strategy to regulate.”

Torres’ criticism is targeting the SEC’s determination in Could to award a Particular Goal Dealer-Vendor (SPBD) license to Prometheum. The crypto platform, established in 2017, has drawn skepticism because of its perceived perform as a political software somewhat than a authentic buying and selling platform.

Co-founder of Prometheum, Aaron Kaplan, grew to become a controversial determine after endorsing the SEC’s present regulatory method throughout a congressional listening to in June. Kaplan’s help, coupled with swirling social media hypothesis over Prometheum’s potential hyperlinks to Chinese language buyers, has solely added to the rising debate surrounding the platform.

Marisa Tashman Coppel of the Blockchain Affiliation submitted a request to the SEC on June 15, searching for readability on Prometheum, calling it “suspicious.”

2/ The CEO one way or the other will get a seat in entrance of Congress and argues that Prometheum represents the compliant path for digital property.

They usually’ve paid $1.5+ million in gross sales commissions to a Chinese language-affiliated entity with fairly the regulatory monitor file.

Hmmm 🤔

— Marisa Tashman Coppel (@MTCoppel) June 15, 2023

A month later, a collective of U.S. lawmakers pushed the SEC to delve into the corporate’s alleged ties to the Chinese language Communist Social gathering.

As Torres rallies for an examination into the SEC’s course of for registering digital property platforms and its association with Prometheum, asking Jeffrey,

“Look at the SEC’s failure to create a rigorous however workable course of for registering real-world digital property platforms and to look at the bizarre backroom deal that the SEC has brokered with Prometheum.”