According to two letters made public recently, Congressman Ritchie Torres has requested two separate independent investigations of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for its “haphazard and heavy-handed approach to digital assets.”
Rep. Torres (D-NY) requested an investigation into the SEC’s unusual decision to grant a special purpose broker-dealer (SPBD) licence to Prometheum, “a trading digital assets platform that does not trade digital assets,” as well as its failure to develop a rigorous but workable process for registering real-world digital assets platforms.
“The dubious decision to licence a deceptive digital assets platform reflects the latest attempt by Chair Gary Gensler to politicize the registration process to an extent seldom seen in the SEC’s history,” Torres wrote. “When it comes to trading platforms that operate in the real world, the SEC’s path to registration remains a bridge to nowhere.”
Rep. Torres (D-NY) sent one letter to SEC Inspector General Deborah Jeffrey and another to Comptroller General Gene Dodaro of the Government Accountability Office.
Torres referred to the SEC as “an overzealous traffic agent who arbitrarily tickets drivers for speeding while keeping everyone endlessly guessing about the speed limit,” and said that “regulation by enforcement is no way to regulate.”