Intern for Gensler? SEC’s college traineeships start at $15 an hour

March 17, 2023 Coin Telegraph

<div>Intern for Gensler? SEC's college traineeships start at an hour</div>

The SEC is recruiting for college traineeships starting at $15.09 an hour, which is less than the minimum wage in Washington D.C. where the regulator is headquartered.

College students wishing to intern for the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) are in luck — the regulator has opened applications for its Scholars Program for Fall 2023.

The SEC is after “student trainees” for its business and legal programs, with the business program paying between $15.09 to $28.83 per hour for the traineeship at its Washington D.C. headquarters.

The job opportunity announcements for the Fall 2023 SEC Scholars Program are now live!

The announcements will close on Monday, April 3rd. The program targets currently enrolled students to participate in a paid 10-week internship.

For more info ⬇️⬇️https://t.co/q1a7saus9J
— U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (@SECGov) March 16, 2023

The lowest range of the rate posted for the business program is lower than the current Washington D.C. minimum wage of $16.10.

Typically, however, most firms in the U.S. are not legally obligated to pay interns if the employment relationship satisfies the “primary beneficiary test” set out in the Fair Labor Standards Act.

The SEC's legal program also pays more generously, with rates for both its regional and Washington D.C. office advertised between $23.47 to $35.27 per hour.

The programs target currently enrolled undergraduate and graduate students to participate in 10-week internships beginning on Aug. 28 and wrappi up on Nov. 3.

Both programs are open in other U.S. states for the regulator's regional offices in locations such as California, Colorado, Florida and Georgia, according to the job postings.

*Application details for the Student Trainee position as part of the Business program. Source:* *USAJOBS*

As part of the application, those interested are required to select the lowest pay grade they’re willing to accept for the position.

The posting said the SEC is looking for those who study blockchain, distributed ledger technology, computer science or cybersecurity among a host of other fields of study.

In May last year, the SEC expanded its Cyber Unit by nearly 50%. The unit comprises “Crypto Assets” and “Cyber” subdivisions which overlook the named sectors and assist in deciding where to pursue enforcement action.

Those interested in the traineeship have until April 3 to submit their application.

Republican Congressman Tom Emmer Queries FDIC on Alleged Efforts to Purge Crypto Activity from US

March 17, 2023 Bitcoin.com

Signature Bank investigated for money laundering prior to demise: Report

March 15, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

The pro-crypto bank was reportedly under dual investigations to uncover if it was taking proactive measures to stop money laundering.

The cryptocurrency-friendly Signature Bank was reportedly being investigated by two United States government bodies prior to its collapse.

According to a March 15 Bloomberg report citing people familiar with the matter, investigators with the Justice Department were examining whether Signature took adequate measures to detect potential money laundering by its clients.

It was noted the regulator was particularly concerned as to whether the bank was taking preemptive measures to monitor transactions for “signs of criminality” and properly vetting account holders.

A separate probe by the Securities and Exchange Commission was also “taking a look” at the bank, according to two anonymous sources quoted by Bloomberg. Details regarding the nature of the SEC’s probe were not reported.

It's unclear when the investigations began and what effect, if any, they had on the recent decision by New York state regulators to close the bank.

It’s reported Signature and its staff are not accused of wrongdoing and the investigations may be finalized without any charges or further action taken by the SEC or the Department of Justice (DOJ).

The report comes after a March 14 class action lawsuit by Signature shareholders filed against the bank and former executives for claiming to be “financially strong,” only three days before it was forcibly shuttered.

Barney Frank, a former board member of Signature Bank, said on March 13 the regulators wanted “to send a very strong anti-crypto message.”

Frank added the crypto-friendly bank became the “poster boy,” as there was “no insolvency based on the fundamentals.”

Signature, which was closed on March 12, was part of a series of bank closures that also included Silvergate Capital and Silicon Valley Bank (SVB).

The DOJ and the SEC have reportedly since initiated separate investigations into the collapse of Silvergate Capital and SVB.

It’s reported the regulators will examine the events leading up to the bank’s collapse, including scrutinizing security filings that disclosed the sale of SVB shares by the firm's CEO Greg Becker and CFO Daniel Beck that took place two weeks prior to its downfall.

The SEC has not formally commented on the matters, but SEC chair Gary Gensler said on March 12 that it “will investigate and bring enforcement actions if we find violations of the federal securities laws.”

Biden vows to hold accountable those responsible for SVB, Signature collapse

March 13, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

United States President Joe Biden said on Twitter that he is “firmly committed” to holding those responsible for the Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank collapse “fully accountable.”

The president of the United States, Joe Biden, has vowed to hold those responsible for the failure of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank while assuring Americans that their deposits are safe.

On March 12, the New York District of Financial Services took possession of Signature Bank. The Federal Reserve said that the crypto-friendly bank was closed to protect the U.S. economy and strengthen public confidence in the banking system.

The Fed also announced a $25 million fund aimed at backstopping certain banks that could face liquidity issues in the future.

Biden tweeted to his 29.9 million followers on March 13 that he’s pleased that the agencies have “reached a solution that protects workers, small businesses, taxpayers and our financial system.”

At my direction, @SecYellen and my National Economic Council Director worked with banking regulators to address problems at Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank.

I’m pleased they reached a solution that protects workers, small businesses, taxpayers, and our financial system. https://t.co/CxcdvLVP6l
— President Biden (@POTUS) March 13, 2023

The president added he was also “firmly committed” to holding those responsible for the mess “fully accountable.” He added that he would “have more to say” in an address on Monday, March 13.

Meanwhile, a host of other United States politicians have also shared praise over the recent federal regulator actions aimed at stemming contagion from the recent banking collapses.

U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown and Representative Maxine Waters said they were also pleased to see that both insured and uninsured SVB depositors would be covered, according to March 12 statement by the U.S. Senate Banking and Housing Committee:

“Today’s actions will enable workers to receive their paychecks and for small businesses to survive, while providing depository institutions with more liquidity options to weather the storm.”

“As we work to better understand all of the factors that contributed to the events of the last several days and how to strengthen guardrails for the largest banks, we urge financial regulators to ensure the banking system remains stable, strong, and resilient, and depositors’ money is safe,” the statement added.

Silicon Valley Bank depositors, both insured & uninsured, will be made whole by the plan from the FDIC, the Federal Reserve, the Treasury & the White House. And the Fed has created a new facility to support all banks that need liquidity to ensure our banking system is safe.
— Maxine Waters (@RepMaxineWaters) March 13, 2023

Meanwhile, U.S. Securities Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler has used the moment to double down on his agency’s pursuit of wrongdoers, without naming any industries in particular.

The chairman reinforced that the SEC would be on the lookout for violators of U.S. securities laws in a March 12 statement:

“In times of increased volatility and uncertainty, we at the SEC are particularly focused on monitoring for market stability and identifying and prosecuting any form of misconduct that might threaten investors, capital formation, or the markets more broadly.”

“Without speaking to any individual entity or person, we will investigate and bring enforcement actions if we find violations of the federal securities laws,” the SEC chairman added.

The shuttering of SVB temporarily triggered the depegging of Circle's USD Coin (USDC) to as low as $0.88 on March 11, as $3.3 billion of Circle’s $40 billion USDC reserves are held by SVB.

However, USDC is nearly back at $1 after the Federal Reserve confirmed that all customer deposits at Signature Bank and SVB would be made in “whole.”

Another prominent crypto-bank, Silvergate Bank, announced last week that it would shut down and voluntarily liquidate “in light of recent industry and regulatory developments.”

Shortly after, Gensler wrote a March 9 opinion piece for The Hill that threatened U.S. crypto companies to “do their work within the bounds of the law” or be met with enforcement action.

As Chair of @SECGov, I have one goal with regard to the crypto markets: to ensure that investors and the markets receive all the protections that they would in any other securities market. How?

Read my op-ed in @thehill:
— Gary Gensler (@GaryGensler) March 9, 2023

$429,000,000 in Bitcoin and Crypto Liquidated in Just 24 Hours As Powerful Law Enforcement Agency Targets Ethereum

March 10, 2023 The Daily Hodl

CFTC Chair Declares Ethereum (ETH) a Commodity, Regardless of Gary Gensler’s Bitcoin-Only Stance

March 9, 2023 The Daily Hodl

Crypto Exchange Binance Approached SEC Chair Gary Gensler in 2018 To Offer Advisory Position: Report

March 7, 2023 The Daily Hodl

Lawmakers should check the SEC’s wartime consigliere with legislation

March 6, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler has a lot in common with “The Godfather’s” Michael Corleone, according to the Cato Institute's Jack Solowey and Jennifer Schulp.

When Michael Corleone ordered hits on rival bosses in The Godfather, he had Don Cuneo locked inside a revolving door and shot. Getting whacked while trapped behind a barred door appears to be the treatment United States Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler has in mind for U.S. crypto projects based on recent SEC enforcement activity and comments by the chair.

The SEC should not be left to wage an unsupervised dirty war on crypto. Congress must both defend its oversight authority and give American crypto developers, entrepreneurs and users a clear path to lawfully carry on their business. Providing a common-sense disclosure framework for asset-backed stablecoins is the place to start.

Gensler’s SEC appears to be attempting to settle “all family business” with crypto. On Feb. 9, the SEC settled allegations that Kraken’s “staking-as-a-service” program (a way to earn rewards for helping to maintain crypto networks) constituted the illegal sale of unregistered securities. Later in the month, news emerged that the SEC sent a Wells notice to stablecoin issuer Paxos, indicating a potential future enforcement action over its Binance USD (BUSD) token (a Binance-branded asset designed to keep a 1:1 peg with the U.S. dollar), which the commission apparently also alleges is an unregistered security. And Gensler indicated in a recent interview that basically every crypto project — “everything other than Bitcoin” — could have an SEC target on its back.

The SEC maintains it is merely enforcing existing registration and disclosure requirements on crypto tokens and services it considers securities. But this is misleading for two reasons.

One, the applicability of securities laws to the projects at issue — Kraken’s staking service and Paxos’s BUSD stablecoin — is, at the very least, contestable. Even more so if the idea is that every crypto token other than Bitcoin (BTC) is to be considered a security. And two, a regulator interested in getting consumers the best disclosures about new products, including stablecoins, would provide clear guidance on how to do so. The SEC hasn’t.

With Kraken, the SEC alleged its staking service involved a type of security known as an investment contract. In broad strokes, these securities cover an investment with an expectation of profit based on others’ managerial or entrepreneurial efforts. Whether Kraken’s service was is debatable. With Paxos, we don’t yet know what type of security the SEC thinks describes the BUSD stablecoin and why, but generally speaking, it’s harder, although not necessarily impossible, to see how an asset that a buyer does not expect to generate a profit is a security.

Troublingly, Gensler’s comments also could imply that he views even highly decentralized tokens, like Ether (ETH), as securities. This is inconsistent with previous comments by SEC officials, as well as the idea that securities laws are to address managerial risks — hallmarks of centralized bodies, not decentralized software protocols.

Moreover, even if one assumes that a particular token or service were a security, there’s still the matter of registration. And this is where the SEC looks like the hitman bolting the door.

It was entirely disingenuous when Gensler declared the process for registering a crypto security is “just a form on our website.” As Michael Corleone might have scowled, Gensler’s line “insults my intelligence and makes me very angry.” Because as SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce explained in her dissent against the Kraken action, “in the current climate, crypto-related offerings are not making it through the SEC’s registration pipeline.”

Lawmakers have a vital role in restoring administrative accountability. In a Feb. 14 Senate Banking Committee hearing, Republican Senator Tim Scott told the hearing, “If Chairman Gensler is going to take enforcement action, Congress needs to hear from him very soon.” Across the aisle, Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand has voiced similar sentiment: “I have many concerns about Chairman Gensler and his approach to this space.”

Oversight would be most welcome. Congress should go a step further by legislating, first providing a practical registration path for stablecoins.

Ostensibly, the SEC wants issuers to disclose stablecoin risks to consumers. The main risk is a stablecoin will “break the buck,” losing 1:1 redeemability with the asset it’s pegged to, such as the U.S. dollar, because the issuer doesn’t have the reserves it claims to. Basic requirements around collateral and disclosures subject to antifraud authority would directly address this.

Some, however, including the President’s Working Group, have argued more is needed and only insured depository institutions should issue stablecoins. But limiting stablecoin issuance to banks is just another way of barring the door to new market entrants. Straightforward rules enabling competition, not protectionist restrictions, are the path to continued financial leadership.

The SEC shouldn’t be left in the shadows to try to snuff out Americans’ work on and access to a new class of technology. As House Financial Services Committee Chairman Patrick McHenry has recognized, the future of digital assets “is a major political and economic question that must be decided by Congress.”

That decision should include initiating straightforward stablecoin legislation and democratic accountability. After all, a regulator is in no position to demand of Congress, “Don’t ask me about my business.”

Jack Solowey is a policy analyst at the Cato Institute’s Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives (CMFA), focusing on financial technology, crypto and DeFi. He holds a law degree from the New York University School of Law and a bachelor of arts from the University of Pennsylvania.

Jennifer J. Schulp is the director of Financial Regulation Studies at the Cato Institute’s CMFA, where she focuses on the regulation of securities and capital markets. She holds a law degree from the University of Chicago Law School and an undergraduate degree from the University of Chicago.

This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.