Nonprofit Focused On “Corporate Wrongdoing” Empower Oversight Launches Lawsuit Against SEC Amidst Reports of Conflicts of Interests
Empower Oversight, a nonprofit dedicated to enhancing independent governmental oversight, filed a lawsuit against the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Friday, alleging the federal agency failed to comply with their Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request regarding cryptocurrency conflict of interests at the agency.
The nonprofit’s lawsuit is particularly focused on uncovering information about William Hinman, the Director of the Division of Corporate Finance at the SEC from May 2017 to December 2020, following revelations “that several former-SEC officials held financial interests that call into question the integrity of their actions at the SEC.”
Empower Oversight alleges that Hinman violated the federal agency’s ethics guidance as his former employer, Simpson Thacher, “continued to pay him millions of dollars” during his time at the federal agency.
Additionally, Hinman gave a speech in July 2018 in support of Ether while Simpson Thacher served as a member of the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance.
“Despite very little cooperation from the SEC, Empower learned through FOIA requests that Hinman both had a personal financial interest in cryptocurrencies the SEC was regulating and also broke ethics guidance by meeting with other entities that had an interest,” a Monday press release from the nonprofit noted.
The March 15 filing is the latest development in Empower Oversight’s push for transparency at the federal agency, which has been seeking additional information about the reported conflict of interest since last year.
