On the Road: SEC Crypto Task Force to Host a Series of Roundtables Across the U.S.

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced today that its Crypto Task Force will host a series of roundtables across the country to provide opportunities for additional stakeholders to meet with Commissioner Hester Peirce, who leads the Crypto Task Force.

“We want to hear from people who were not able to travel for the roundtables that took place this past spring in Washington, D.C. and may not have had a voice in past policymaking efforts,” said Commissioner Peirce. “The Crypto Task Force is acutely aware that any regulatory framework will have far-reaching effects, and we want to ensure that our outreach is as comprehensive as possible.”

Commissioner Peirce and members of the Crypto Task Force will be visiting cities across the U.S. in the coming months (please see the tentative schedule listed below), and they are particularly interested in hearing from representatives of crypto-related projects that have 10 or fewer employees and are less than two years old.

Tequila, Drugs and Torture: The Spending Binge of Two Crypto Bros That Ended Behind Bars

On May 23, a 28-year-old cryptocurrency trader from Italy ran shoeless and bleeding from Duplessie and Woeltz’s eight-bedroom townhouse in Manhattan and begged a New York City traffic cop for help. He said the men had held him for more than two weeks, using torture to try to pry loose passwords to his cryptocurrency accounts. They dangled him from the top of five flights of stairs, threatening to kill him if he didn’t cough up a ransom, the man alleged in a criminal complaint.

Lawyers declined to comment on behalf of Duplessie and Woeltz, who have pleaded not guilty to charges of assault, kidnapping and coercion. If convicted, they could face life in prison.

This article is based on court records, phone recordings, government records, emails, photographs and text messages reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, as well as interviews with people who spent time with Duplessie and Woeltz in New York, Kentucky, California and Florida.

SEC Creates Task Force to Tap Artificial Intelligence for Enhanced Innovation and Efficiency Across the Agency

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced the launch of a task force on artificial intelligence (AI) that will spearhead the agency’s efforts to enhance innovation and efficiency in its operations through the responsible use of AI. Valerie Szczepanik, who has been named the SEC’s Chief AI Officer, is leading the task force.

Recognizing the transformative potential of AI, the SEC’s AI Task Force will accelerate AI integration to bolster the SEC’s mission. It will centralize the agency’s efforts and enable internal cross-agency and cross-disciplinary collaboration to navigate the AI lifecycle, remove barriers to progress, focus on AI applications that maximize benefits, and maintain governance. The task force will support innovation from the SEC’s divisions and offices and facilitate responsible AI integration across the agency.

Tesla Approves $30 Billion Stock Award for CEO Elon Musk

Tesla Inc. approved an interim stock award worth about $30 billion for Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk and said it would put a longer-term CEO compensation strategy ahead of a vote at the EV maker’s Nov. 6 annual meeting.

The new agreement includes 96 million shares of the automaker that will vest if Musk continues to serve in the top post for another two years, the company said Monday in a regulatory filing. The restricted stock has an exercise price of $23.34, equal to the price in a deal originally granted in 2018. […]

The move comes after a prior compensation package valued in excess of $50 billion was voided by the Delaware Chancery Court after a shareholder lawsuit. It’s currently being appealed and a special board committee has been exploring ways to offer Musk a new compensation agreement after shifting Tesla’s legal home to Texas last year.