Empower Oversight Whistleblowers & Research (EMPOWR) has filed a lawsuit against the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to obtain access to communications between former SEC officials and their former and future employers. The suit alleges that former SEC officials, including Jay Clayton, Marc Berger, and William Hinman, had potential conflicts of interest regarding cryptocurrency. EMPOWR believes that the requested records will reveal whether these officials had conflicts of interest when declaring whether certain cryptocurrencies constitute securities. The current lawsuit is the latest in a series of legal actions dating back to EMPOWR's original FOIA request in August 2021.
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