Skip to main content

SEC enforcement chief steps down just days after appointment

The official's conduct in past litigation was brought into question by a U.S. District court judge.

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission new enforcement chief, Alex Oh, has resigned from her position with the Securities and Exchange Commission just days after taking the role.

According to an official SEC announcement, Oh stepped down for personal reasons. However, in Oh’s resignation letter to Chairman Gary Gensler — as seen by Bloomberg — the former enforcement chief revealed she was stepping down to avoid becoming a distraction, as she deals with controversies arising from a case she worked in the past.

Oh was previously a partner at the Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison private law practice, where she represented, among others, oil giant Exxon Mobil Corp. The case in question reportedly relates to Oh’s defense of Exxon against allegations that the firm had supported the torture and murder of Indonesian villagers.

Oh’s conduct during the litigation was brought into question by U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth on April 26. Oh was asked to provide evidence for the unsupported claim she made during a deposition for the case that her opposing counsel was “agitated, disrespectful, and unhinged”.

“A development arose this week in one of the cases on which I worked while still in private law practice. I have reached the conclusion that I cannot address this development without it becoming an unwelcome distraction,” said Oh, in her resignation letter to the SEC chairman.

Oh will be replaced by Melissa Hodgman, who previously served in the role in early 2021. Hodgeman will serve as the acting director of enforcement going forward.

Gary Gensler's appointment as SEC chairman in mid-April was seen as a possible boon to the cryptocurrency space, given Gensler's history as a blockchain educator, and his acceptance of Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies' role as new financial tools.

However, Oh's resignation means Gensler is now without his first pick for the role of enforcement chief. How much this will disrupt Gensler's plans during his tenure as SEC chairman remains to be seen.



from https://ift.tt/2PBse85
https://ift.tt/3xCNCuY

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

TA: Ethereum Remains Strong, Why ETH Could Rally Above $2.3K

Ethereum is trading in a positive zone above the $2,150 support zone the 100 hourly SMA against the US Dollar. ETH price is likely to rally if there is a clear break above $2,300. Ethereum is trading in a positive zone above the $2,100 and $2,150 support levels. The price is now trading above $2,100 and the 100 hourly simple moving average. There is a key bullish trend line forming with support near $2,140 on the hourly chart of ETH/USD (data feed via Kraken). The pair start a fresh rally above $2,300 as long as it is above the $2,000 support zone. Ethereum Price Is Showing Positive Signs After forming a base above $2,000, ethereum started a steady increase . ETH broke the $2,200 resistance zone and it settled nicely above the 100 hourly simple moving average. The price even spiked above the $2,250 resistance level. However, the price seems to be struggling to gain pace above $2,250, similar to bitcoin . A high is formed near $2,285 and ether is now correcting lower. There was...

DeFi isn’t dead, it just needs to fix these 3 critical problems

It’s been a rough year for DeFi, and it may not get any better until projects focus more on security, regulation and usability. The persistent challenges  decentralized finance  face have been well documented by a handful of analysts and the recent collapse of the Terra ecosystem re-enforced the fact that something is critically wrong with DeFi. I think DeFi today is completely broken for 99% of the population. The promise of a more transparent financial system has been overtaken by greed. UST/LUNA is just the latest in a string of bad developments: — Peter Yang (@petergyang) May 11, 2022 Let's take a look at what experts say DeFi needs to do in order to have another revival.  Improved usability To date, the promise of open and uncensored access to a global decentralized financial system has been largely hampered by the complicated interface, confusing multi-step staking processes and lack of clarity surrounding the yields on various tokens. What do you thi...

ENS DAO delegates offer perspective on DAO governance and decentralized identity

AlphaWallet CEO and Spruce co-founder talk about their roles as contributors to the Ethereum Name Service following the project's recent airdrop. Earlier this month, the Ethereum Name Service, or ENS, formed a decentralized autonomous organization, or DAO, for the ENS community.  Cointelegraph spoke to two ENS DAO delegates who applied for the opportunity to represent the community and stay involved in the decision making process: Victor Zhang, CEO of AlphaWallet, an open source Ethereum wallet, and Gregory Rocco, co-founder of Spruce, a decentralized ID and data toolkit for developers. Zhang spoke about his experience as an external contributor to ENS and an early supporter since 2018. Zhang initially sought to help ENS by offering Alpha Wallet as a user-friendly tool for  resolving .eth names and cryptocurrency wallet addresses. Essentially, if a user inputs an .eth name in the AlphaWallet, it will show the wallet address, and vice versa using reverse resolution. Alpha...