Democratic Congressman Richie Torres has called for an investigation into the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over its “disorganised and despotic approach to digital assets.”
“The SEC behaves like an overly zealous traffic cop, arbitrarily issuing fines to drivers, while keeping the speed limit secret. The agency prefers to communicate through coercion rather than rules or guidance,” the lawmaker said.
The reason for the request was the Commission’s special-purpose broker-dealer license for digital securities, which Prometheum received.
“The dubious licensing decision for a misleading digital-asset platform reflects an attempt by the agency’s chair Gary Gensler to politicize the registration process to a level rarely seen in the SEC’s history,” Torres said.
He sent a request to begin an inquiry with the regulator’s inspector general and the Comptroller General’s Office.
Earlier in April, Torres accused the SEC chair of failing to draw lessons from the FTX collapse, pointing to investigations into Coinbase and other American firms. Around the same time, Warren Davidson, the Ohio Republican in the House, introduced a proposing the removal of Gensler from his post.
On June 6, the Commission filed a lawsuit against a crypto exchange, accusing it of violating securities laws. A day earlier the agency made charges against Binance and its CEO Changpeng Zhao.
Earlier, in mid-June, U.S. lawmakers introduced a bill to oust Gensler and restructure the SEC over the “ongoing abuses” by the agency head.