Congressman Ritchie Torres is calling for two separate investigations of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) into its “disorganized and repressive practices” in the digital asset space, according to two letters made public on Thursday. .
Torres requested an investigation into the SEC’s granting of a special purpose broker (SPBD) license to Prometheum, a digital asset platform that “does not trade digital assets,” under special circumstances. He also called for an investigation into the SEC’s failure to create a rigorous but workable process for registering real-world digital asset platforms.
“The questionable decision to authorize a deceptive digital asset platform reflects Chairman Gary Gensler’s latest attempt to politicize the registration process, rarely seen in SEC history,” Torres wrote in the letter. “When it comes to trading platforms operating in the real world, the SEC’s path to registration remains a bridge to nowhere.”
Torres sent one letter to SEC Inspector General Deborah Jeffrey and another to Comptroller General Gene Dodaro of the Government Accountability Office.
Torres called the SEC "an overzealous traffic cop, arbitrarily issuing tickets to speeders while keeping everyone guessing endlessly about speed limits," adding that "regulation through enforcement is not the appropriate way to regulate."