Coinbase’s chief legal officer, Paul Grewal, is accusing the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) of stonewalling the top US crypto exchange’s request for public records.
In a new thread on the social media platform
Coinbase has used the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to uncover cases where the FDIC has asked banks to freeze crypto services, known as “pause letters,” but Grewal says they are not fully complying.
The law firm History Associates, hired by Coinbase, has now filed a motion asking the federal court to intervene.
Says Grewal,
“A picture of deceit, embezzlement and bad faith is emerging at the FDIC. [This month] we report to the federal court that the agency has once again blocked legitimate requests for information in our case and that we intend to amend our FOIA complaint to address their violations of the law.
When we submitted our original request, we requested all pause letters identified by the Office of the Inspector General. Without notifying us or the court, the FDIC limited their search for break letters to only those letters that are “in the report” – so other break letters may exist.
When we asked them to correct their so-called ‘reasonable interpretation’ and stop playing word games, they told us this would take at least a year. Meanwhile, whistleblowers’ reports of widespread misconduct at the FDIC are getting louder and louder, with accusations of mislabeling documents, refusing to search certain databases, and even spending taxpayer money on investigating me. We asked FDIC about this, [but] they didn’t respond.”
Grewal promises he won’t give up the search for information.
“I will not pretend to speak for the Court or Congress. But if the FDIC thinks they can win in a staring contest against Coinbase or the industry, they are clearly underestimating us and our commitment to the law. We’re not going anywhere. And our lawyers aren’t going anywhere.”
Last month, Grewal said the The information they have received so far has confirmed the idea that the US government was trying to undermine the digital asset industry.
“The letters revealing Operation Chokepoint 2.0 were not just another crypto conspiracy theory. The FDIC still hides behind overly broad editorials. And they still haven’t produced more than a fraction of it.”
An example in the documents shows that FDIC Assistant Regional Director Joseph Meade asked an unnamed bank in Dallas, Texas, to pause its crypto operations in 2022 because the FDIC “has not determined what, if any, regulatory filings it will require for a bank to participate in these types of activities.”
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