“Consulting firm History Associates has said the FDIC has failed to provide dozens of “cease and desist letters” requested in a lawsuit filed by cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase. This is reported by Cointelegraph. The FDIC sent out “suspension letters” from March 2022 to May 2023. In them, the agency urged banks to temporarily curtail cryptocurrency-related activities and requested information about them, including cost analysis and marketing materials. […]”, — write: businessua.com.ua
History Associates, a consulting firm, said it was not provided by the party FDIC dozens of “cease and desist letters” requested during the cryptocurrency lawsuit lawsuit Coinbase exchange. This is reported by Cointelegraph.
The FDIC sent out “suspension letters” from March 2022 to May 2023. In them, the agency urged banks to temporarily curtail cryptocurrency-related activities and requested information about them, including cost analysis and marketing materials.
According to information from public whistleblowers, the federal agency “systematically obstructs requests FOIA“. According to History Associates, this approach resulted in the FDIC citing only 25 letters in their case, while remaining silent on at least 150 other documents.
According to Coinbase General Counsel Paul Grewal, their side was interested in all the “suspension letters” that ever went through the FDIC’s Office of the Inspector General. However, the agency’s employees were limited to the period from March 2022 to May 2023.
A picture of deception, obfuscation, and bad faith is coming into focus at @FDICgov. Today we’re reporting to the federal court that the agency once again stonewalled legitimate requests for information in our case, and that we’re moving to amend our FOIA complaint to address their…
— paulgrewal.eth (@iampaulgrewal) January 17, 2025
“When we asked them to correct their supposed reasonable interpretation and stop playing word games, they told us it would take at least a year,” Grewal added.
The FDIC itself believes that History Associates has no “reasonable basis” to believe that any letters outside of that period were subject to the original FOIA request. However, they are ready to consider the request for them separately.
History Associates plans to supplement the lawsuit with new allegations against the agency.
Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis previously threatened the FDIC with criminal charges if the agency actually destroyed documents related to crypto-surveillance.
As a reminder, in June 2024, Coinbase sued the SEC and the FDIC over their attempts to “cut off” the crypto industry from the banking sector.
The exchange is seeking access to fully declassified versions of the “suspension letters” because most of them are heavily redacted, making it difficult to understand their substance.
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