Warren and Grassley Urge CFTC to Disclose Communication Records with FTX

United States Senators Elizabeth Warren and Charles Grassley have written a letter to Rostin Behnam, the chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), requesting information about Behnam’s interactions with former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried prior to the collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange. The senators want to “renew requests” for this information and reference a letter from Senator Josh Hawley addressed to Behnam and others.
Warren and Grassley, who represent different ends of the US political spectrum, reminded Behnam of his statement during a Senate Agriculture Committee hearing in December. He stated that “My team and I met with Mr. Bankman-Fried and his team […] over the past 14 months, we met 10 times in the CFTC office at their request.”
During the hearing, Behnam, who was the only witness, used the opportunity to advocate for more authority for the CFTC. He argued that “Without new authority for the CFTC, there will remain gaps in a federal regulatory framework, even if other regulators act within their existing authority.” In their letter dated April 12, Warren and Grassley expressed their intention to obtain accounts of all interactions between Behnam or CFTC staff and Bankman-Fried, FTX, Alameda, or any associated executives. They also requested a timeline of the CFTC’s knowledge of the fraud committed, as well as information about any ongoing investigations into the parties involved.
The senators specifically want to “understand the nature of [Behnam’s] repeated correspondence with Mr. Bankman-Fried” prior to the public knowledge of his crimes.
In a separate letter, Republican Senator Hawley had previously asked Behnam, Attorney General Merrick Garland, and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler if their agencies had initiated investigations into FTX or Alameda before their collapse or if they had entered into confidential settlements with the companies or their executives.
Source: Crypto Asset Investor