Empower Oversight. October 5, 2022.
WASHINGTON – Empower Oversight filed its opposition to the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC)’s motion for summary judgment in the ongoing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit over documents related to conflicts of interest and selective enforcement in cryptocurrency cases.
The filing demonstrates that the SEC intentionally misinterpreted the plain text of Empower Oversight’s request, admittedly ignored statutory deadlines without cause, and solicited search terms to locate documents, only to ignore those as well.
Jason Foster, Founder and President of Empower Oversight, issued the following statement:
“It’s abundantly clear that the SEC is doing everything within its power to hide information from the public about these issues. The key question is why? Despite its stubborn delays and resistance to our FOIA requests, the few documents that we managed to pry loose from the agency point to serious ethical concerns.
“Perhaps it is merely bureaucratic incompetence, but it is also possible that the SEC is acting like it has something to hide because it actually has something to hide. That’s why FOIA exists, to hold government accountable through transparency. The law requires more than the SEC seems willing to provide.”