US senators call the SEC’s action on the debt fund ‘unthinkable’
A group of five Republican lawmakers from the United States Senate has criticized the Securities and Exchange Commission in its lawsuit against digital licensing, a business like a debt box.
In the year In a Feb. 7 letter to SEC Chairman Gary Gensler, six Republican senators said they were “deeply concerned” by the commission's handling of the debt-box case, saying the regulator was acting in an “unethical and unprofessional manner.” In December, the SEC admitted to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Utah that it failed to be “truthful and honest” in its claims that it closed Debt Box's bank accounts and planned to move them to the United Arab Emirates. Emirates
“Whether or not Commission staff deliberately falsified evidence or unwittingly provided false information, this case shows otherwise. [emphasis added by authors] Enforcement cases brought by the commission may be worth investigating,” the senators said. “It is difficult to maintain confidence that other cases are not based on dubious evidence, trumped-up or factual misrepresentations.”
The six senators — JD Vance, Thom Tillis, Bill Hagerty, Cynthia Lummis and Katie Boyd Britt — appeared to not suggest any further action for the SEC and merely expressed their concerns. The SEC's solution of mandatory staff training and staff turnover may not be enough, he said.
RELATED: Debtbox urges judge to file suit, says SEC ‘badly misconceived' case
The SEC filed charges against Debt Fund in July 2023, alleging that the firm executed an illegal $50 million crypto scheme. On the SEC's claims, the court granted a temporary restraining order to freeze the debt fund's assets. However, many of the SEC's comments were later dismissed by the court and the commission filed a petition to dismiss the case.
It's unclear if the Republican senators intend to water down other enforcement cases by the SEC against crypto companies. The commission has ongoing charges against Binance, Kraken, Ripple and Coinbase. Cointelegraph reached out to the SEC for comment but did not receive a response at the time of publication.
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