The US Federal Deposit Insurance coverage Company has been accused of omitting extra crypto-related “pause letters” it despatched to banks in an ongoing Coinbase-backed Freedom of Data Act lawsuit.
In a Jan. 17 standing report back to a Washington, DC, federal court docket, Historical past Associates mentioned the FDIC “might have omitted extra pause letters fully” and that it plans to replace its lawsuit with new allegations.
The agency claimed that “public whistleblower allegations have surfaced” that alleged the company “systematically thwarts FOIA requests,” which it mentioned resulted within the FDIC failing at hand over a minimum of 150 paperwork associated to its FOIA request.
The 25 FDIC letters that have been shared seemingly advised financial institutions to halt their crypto operations till the company accomplished regulatory critiques as a part of what the crypto trade believes was a concerted effort to chop off crypto-related firms from banking companies dubbed “Operation Chokepoint 2.0.”
Historical past Associates accused the FDIC of failing to completely seek for all of the crypto financial institution pause letters. Supply: PACER
Paul Grewal, Coinbase’s chief authorized officer, said in a Jan. 16 assertion posted on X that the swimsuit requested for all pause letters that the Workplace of Inspector Common recognized.
Nonetheless, he alleges that FDIC restricted “their seek for pause letters to solely these contained within the report — so different pause letters might exist.”
“After we requested them to repair their supposed cheap interpretation and cease enjoying phrase video games, they informed us it might take a minimum of a yr,” Grewal added.
Supply: Paul Grewal
The FDIC argued in its Jan. 17 standing report that it has complied with the FOIA request by producing all related paperwork and carried out the mandatory search of letters shared with the FDIC Workplace of Inspector Common between March 2022 and Might 2023.
The federal government company says Historical past Associates has no “cheap foundation” to imagine that any letters exterior this report and timeframe have been lined below the unique FOIA request.
The FDIC added that it’s reviewing the request for letters exterior these parameters “as a separate FOIA request that it would evaluate on an expedited foundation.”
In a Jan. 16 letter, Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis warned the FDIC that if the allegations of destroyed paperwork and obstructing the investigation have been true, legal referrals to the Division of Justice would comply with.
Associated: Coinbase sues SEC, FDIC over FOIA noncompliance
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong initially filed a Freedom of Data Act request to acquire letters despatched by the FDIC in 2022 asking banks to pause crypto-related activities.
The FDIC despatched the Coinbase govt closely redacted variations of the letters — prompting Decide Ana Reyes to order the company to produce more transparent documents.
Coinbase hired History Associates Incorporated to submit a FOIA request to the FDIC, which was denied and resulted in authorized motion to acquire the letters.
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