SEC Makes More Personnel Moves to "Bury its Conflict With the Crypto Market"

SEC Ousts Top Litigator Who Battled With Crypto Giants

The Securities and Exchange Commission is so eager to bury its conflict with the crypto market that it moved its top litigator to an office that maintains the agency’s computer systems.

The agency last week transferred Jorge Tenreiro, who had overseen a half-dozen lawsuits against crypto exchanges and other platforms that were critical for deciding the reach of the SEC’s authority over the volatile market. The commission also reassigned a lawyer who was involved in writing controversial accounting guidance that made it hard for banks to safeguard crypto for clients.[…]

Another senior SEC lawyer, Natasha Guinan, was reassigned from her role in the chief accountant’s office. Crypto firms were unhappy with an accounting policy that made it hard for banks to safeguard crypto assets for clients. The SEC under Uyeda, the acting chairman, withdrew the guidance two weeks ago.

Bondi Diminishes Justice Department White Collar Enforcement

The Justice Department is scaling back enforcement of laws governing foreign lobbying transparency and bribes of foreign officials, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced.

The Criminal Division’s Foreign Corrupt Practices Act unit will prioritize investigations related to foreign bribery that facilitates the criminal operations of cartels and transnational criminal organizations, such as cases that involve bribery of foreign officials to “facilitate human smuggling and the trafficking of narcotics and firearms,” Bondi said in a Wednesday memo obtained by Bloomberg Law.

How Trump’s Sweeping Expulsions Have Thrown the FBI Into Chaos

For the past decade, leaders at the FBI and Justice Department have concentrated on threats from overseas, including terrorism, cybercrimes, as well as Chinese and Russian espionage—including the vast “Salt Typhoon” hack of the U.S. telecom system attributed to Beijing and the Kremlin’s escalating acts of sabotage.

Kash Patel, Trump’s pick to run the FBI, is expected to shrink the bureau’s counterintelligence and counterterrorism work, according to his aides. During a Senate confirmation hearing last week, Patel mentioned China only in passing and didn’t speak about any threat from Russia. Republicans said the bureau had for years unfairly targeted Trump and the GOP.

Patel, a Trump surrogate during the president’s 2024 campaign, will likely move agents from securities fraud, antitrust violations and other white-collar cases to pursue drug-trafficking and violent street crime, according to his aides.

You Can Leave Delaware

So big Delaware public companies with controlling shareholders have, in recent years, considered moving to other states. Tesla left Delaware for Texas last year, and we talked this week about rumors that Meta might do so as well. There is a little theoretical problem, though. Let’s say you are the controlling shareholder of a Delaware public company. “I hate this,” you say to your board; “let’s move to Nevada, where life is more pleasant.” “Sure thing, boss,” your board says, and it votes to move to Nevada. There is a shareholder vote, which you win. The lawyers get ready to file the paperwork.

But then, before the papers are filed, a single disgruntled shareholder sues. She sues in Delaware, because you are, for the moment, incorporated in Delaware. Her theory is simple. You are the controlling shareholder of a Delaware corporation. You want the company to do a transaction (reincorporating in Nevada). This transaction would benefit you: Nevada is less tough on controlling shareholders, so you will have more freedom to do what you want with the company, and less risk of being sued. Therefore, this transaction is subject to review by Delaware courts: It has to be “entirely fair” to the other shareholders, and if it isn’t — if you get a benefit that they don’t get — then the court can stop it, or make you pay damages. And you do get a benefit that the other shareholders don’t get — more control, fewer lawsuits — so it’s not fair.[…]

Anyway that’s the theory, and it had some oomph, but yesterday the Delaware Supreme Court rejected it….