00:00I'll turn now to Ranking Member Reed.
00:02Well, thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and thank you, Chairman Atkins.
00:09As we've proceeded, there have been a significant number of cases,
00:17well, several at least, that have been dismissed by the SEC,
00:21and the individuals have associations with the President or his family.
00:27And it raises the question, the public, you know, is there some connection between their political connections and their legal standing?
00:35The most probably notable of these is Mr. Justin Sun, who was sued by the SEC for fraud.
00:44Mr. Sun is the biggest investor in Trump's meme coin, funding at least $40 million to the Trump family.
00:52He invested $75 million in Trump's other crypto project called World Liberty Financial.
00:58He's affiliate with crypto exchange HTX, which was the first to list Trump's stable coin, USD1.
01:06He created the Tron blockchain, and according to a crypto research firm,
01:11the overwhelming majority of Hamas cryptocurrencies seized by Israeli authorities has been tethered on the Tron network.
01:19In addition, Mr. Sun was reportedly under investigation by the Department of Justice for Financial Crimes,
01:25and yet his case was dropped. What was the rationale for dropping the case against Mr. Sun?
01:36Well, thank you, Senator. So, that I, you know, I believe that case was dropped before I got to the SEC,
01:47or if not, I didn't participate in it. But, so I can't speak to the specifics of that case.
01:55But, you know, the, as far as, you know, a lot of these cases that were brought by the SEC,
02:06as we are looking again at the rules and looking to, you know, bring some order to the crypto markets
02:19and the rules that govern those, we're trying to square, you know, our enforcement stance with, you know,
02:27what's, what our stance is with respect to those assets.
02:30Well, I, I think you appreciate the, at least the impression that is generated here.
02:35Uh, on the quick calculation, over a hundred million dollars was given to the President directly and indirectly,
02:43and suddenly a case that was brought, uh, I'm sure not fervorously, but with evidence, et cetera, was suddenly dropped.
02:50How would you reassure the American people that there will be no political interference in the operations of the SEC?
02:57Uh, well, Senator, I've, uh, been, this is now my third time at the SEC,
03:03so I've been in and around, uh, the agency for 30 some years.
03:08And so I, and going, uh, you know, working with, uh, many chairmen and commissions over the years,
03:14I can tell you that, uh, you know, the, the commission, uh, addresses, uh, issues, uh, forthright.
03:21And, uh, and that, uh, without fear or favor and under both parties.
03:27And so I'm proud of the record of the SEC and assure you that, uh, you know, we will continue to do that while I'm chairman.
03:34Uh, we had an opportunity, I guess.
03:36And again, thank you for coming by.
03:38It was, uh, a great opportunity to talk about some of these issues.
03:42One is the presence of DOGE within the SEC, uh, and also the staffing cuts that have been initiated across the government,
03:52but also at SEC.
03:53So starting with the staffing cuts, uh, how many staff have left the Division of Corporate Finance?
04:00Is, is this, do you have those numbers?
04:03Uh, I, uh, perhaps.
04:06I, but I can, what I can tell you is that overall, uh, 15% of the staffing of the agency have left voluntarily.
04:15So they took voluntary retirement by these, uh, things.
04:20Uh, so I, 11%.
04:22So Corp Fin is a bit, uh, below the, um, the average of 15%.
04:27Right.
04:28So, uh, again, this is the, uh, division of SEC that looks at filings for companies, IPOs, et cetera.
04:37Uh, as a loss of, I presume, since they left in retirement, these are senior personnel, probably some of the most experienced members.
04:45Can we assure the, the, the public and the corporate community that, uh, they'll still be efficient, effective, and timely review?
04:53Uh, well, yes, Senator.
04:55So, again, I've been in and around the SEC now for 30 years.
04:59And I have to say I'm very proud of the staff.
05:01I think they're very competent.
05:02And I think there's a deep well of, uh, competency there.
05:06And so the good thing, I mean, uh, one thing that comes of, uh, retirements is that it allows junior, uh, people to, you know, to, who are competent, uh, to move up the ranks.
05:18So I think that circulation is good.
05:20I miss the former folks who have, uh, left.
05:23Um, but I, um, but they took that voluntarily as far as the retirement goes.
05:28Well, my time's expired.
05:29So world experienceors Dimitri was, it's, uh, the hiring space I think that my back room systems had expired.
05:30So far as the battery is supposed to create.
05:31Yes, I am.
05:32So the, and, with, withOkay.
05:33With, with.
05:34With, with, with once in a day, the requirements' contract isn't fixed.
05:36I think there's a very much rapid completion and the Почему?
05:37MS Yep.
05:38But, if the program itself failed at this time, right, and then the papers expired.
05:39Sorry, no, no, no.
05:40It's five dollars.
05:41And then the program's expired, so-
05:42But the program's expired.
05:44So-
05:45Yeah, I think there's a couple nochthard on, right.
05:46payments expired.
05:47All-
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