Senior House Republicans have sent a letter to SEC Chairman, Gary Gensler, demanding him to provide records between the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Justice Department regarding the timing of the charges filed against disgraced crypto entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried, CNBC has learned.
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The Financial Services Committee reportedly wants to know why the FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested just a day before he were scheduled to testify before the committee in December. The letter states:
"Presumably, the SEC's Division of Enforcement did a complete investigation into the actions by Sam Bankman-Fried and presented the findings to the Commission for its review and to authorize the charges. Yet, the timing of the charges and his arrest raise serious questions about the SEC's process and cooperation with the Department of Justice"
The SEC is now demanded to provide the documents by Feb. 23.
In December last year, Bankman-Fried in a Tweet thread agreed to testify before the House Financial Services committee, although he noted there was a "limit" to what he would be able to reveal as he didn't have access to much of his data.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged the disgraced crypto billionaire with defrauding investors. The watchdog believes that at least since May 2019, FTX raised more than $1.8 billion from equity investors, without telling them that the exchange was sending customers' funds to Alameda Research, Bankman-Fried's privately-held crypto hedge fund.
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