The United States House of Representatives Financial Services Committee is demanding that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) provide documents and communications related to the timing of the charging and arrest of Sam Bankman-Fried, former CEO of FTX.
Committee Chair Patrick McHenry and Chair of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Rep. Bill Huizenga have written to SEC Chairman Gary Gensler, criticizing the lack of response to their initial request for information. Bankman-Fried was scheduled to testify before the committee, but his arrest prevented him from doing so.
The SEC has failed to meet deadlines for submitting the documents requested, and staff provided 232 pages of documents that were publicly available and not relevant to the request. As a result, the committee’s work has been impeded.
The legislators have set a new deadline of April 17 at the end of the workday for select documents. They warned that failure to produce the requested information could result in the committee considering using a compulsory process to obtain it.
Attached to the letter were 14 pages of instructions for producing the material the congressmen had requested.
This development follows the earlier demands of the committee to the SEC to release records and communications between and among the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, the Office of the Chair, and the Department of Justice in relation to Bankman-Fried’s arrest.
