During his campaign, Republican President-elect Donald Trump promised to ease up on crypto enforcement, and this is expected to happen as the Justice Department and regulatory agencies reset policy. Crypto fraud cases will not receive a free pass, but they will no longer be a priority. Instead, the focus of government agencies and departments is likely to shift to areas such as immigration law enforcement.
Scott Hartman, co-chief of the securities and commodities task force at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan, stated that fewer resources will be dedicated to crypto-related crimes, meaning fewer prosecutors will be working on such cases. The securities and commodities task force currently has 16 prosecutors, and they hope that the number will not be reduced further.
Steve Pelkin, a partner at law firm Sullivan & Cromwell who led SEC enforcement during the previous Trump presidency, mentioned that there could be a reallocation of resources to immigration enforcement. Trump has also nominated Jay Clayton, who served as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chair under the previous Trump administration, to be the new U.S.
attorney in Manhattan. During Clayton’s tenure, the SEC pursued a few crypto-cases, but the agency was less aggressive than under the leadership of the current chair, Gary Gensler. The SEC is currently involved in litigation with crypto firms like Coinbase and Binance, but it is uncertain if these cases will continue with a change in leadership.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is also expected to follow suit in realigning priorities.
Source
<p>The post Trump’s Justice Department Resets Crypto Enforcement Priorities first appeared on CoinBuzzFeed.</p>