[2026-03-30] Blumenthal Demands Answers from SEC Chairman over…

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Rating Member of the Senate Everlasting Subcommittee on Investigations, immediately wrote to Paul Atkins, Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Alternate Fee (SEC), demanding solutions about latest studies that the SEC could have exercised preferential remedy for monetary companions of President Trump in opposition to the recommendation and warnings of senior workers.

Latest reporting from Reuters revealed that Margaret Ryan, a civil servant who served because the company’s Director of the Division of Enforcement, left her position shortly earlier than the SEC dismissed fraud prices in opposition to Justin Solar, a key companion within the Trump household’s cryptocurrency ventures. In his letter to Atkins, Blumenthal raised issues about Ryan’s abrupt departure and studies that senior management could have intervened to ban the Division of Enforcement from pursuing circumstances in opposition to events near President Trump.

“[O]n March 5, 2026, roughly 11 days earlier than Ms. Ryan stepped down from her place, the SEC dismissed fraud prices in opposition to Mr. Solar and a number of other of his corporations after he agreed to pay a $10 million advantageous,” Blumenthal wrote.

Blumenthal identified how Solar has sought to curry favor with President Trump by shopping for into Trump household cryptocurrency ventures: “The SEC initially based mostly its 2023 enforcement motion in opposition to Mr. Solar’s corporations, together with Tron, on allegations of fraud and market manipulation, wash buying and selling, undisclosed endorsements, and different violations of securities legislation. Going through federal prosecution, Mr. Solar started to purchase into President Trump’s cryptocurrency ventures, first by buying tens of millions of {dollars} price of the President’s memecoin, $TRUMP, which made Solar its largest holder and entitled him to a personal dinner with the President. Mr. Solar and his companies then went on to develop into an early investor within the Trump household’s bigger cryptocurrency enterprise, World Liberty Monetary (WLFI), offering tens of tens of millions in assist to WLFI’s governance token and its stablecoin, USD1.”

Blumenthal continued, “Along with Mr. Solar’s efforts to curry favor with the President, his firm, Tron, can be controversial all through the crypto ecosystem due to its position in facilitating a disproportionate quantity of illicit finance, together with money-laundering, sanctions evasion, and terrorism financing.”

“It is a clear instance of how President Trump’s blatant crypto corruption creates again doorways for his household’s enterprise companions, making a pay-to-play enforcement regime that turns a blind eye to grave threats to nationwide safety and shopper safety,” Blumenthal concluded.

As Rating Member of PSI, Blumenthal is investigating the illicit use of cryptocurrencies, together with by sanctioned entities. As a part of his inquiry, Blumenthal is searching for data and communications between the SEC’s Division of Enforcement and the Workplace of the Chairman, data and communications between the Workplace of the Chairman and any member of the Trump or Witkoff households, data associated to the SEC’s settlements with cryptocurrency corporations, and extra.

The total textual content of Blumenthal’s letter to Atkins is available here and under.

Expensive Chairman Atkins:

I write relating to studies that the Securities and Alternate Fee (“SEC”) could have exercised preferential remedy for monetary companions of President Trump in opposition to the recommendation and warnings of senior workers when the company declined to litigate credible fraud circumstances, together with in opposition to Justin Solar, a key companion within the Trump household’s cryptocurrency ventures.^[1]

On March 16, 2026, Margaret Ryan, a civil servant who served because the company’s Director of the Division of Enforcement, left her position after merely six months on the job.^[2] Her departure reportedly got here because the Division of Enforcement was pursuing prices for fraud and different misconduct in opposition to events near President Trump, together with Justin Solar, however confronted resistance from you and different senior appointees.^[3] Ms. Ryan’s abrupt departure from the company raises questions in mild of her brief tenure and studies that senior management intervened to ban the Division of Enforcement from pursuing circumstances in opposition to sure cryptocurrency corporations.^[4] Certainly, on March 5, 2026, roughly 11 days earlier than Ms. Ryan stepped down from her place, the SEC dismissed fraud prices in opposition to Mr. Solar and a number of other of his corporations after he agreed to pay a $10 million advantageous.^[5]

The SEC initially based mostly its 2023 enforcement motion in opposition to Mr. Solar’s corporations, together with Tron, on allegations of fraud and market manipulation, wash buying and selling, undisclosed endorsements, and different violations of securities legislation.^[6] Going through federal prosecution, Mr. Solar started to purchase into President Trump’s cryptocurrency ventures, first by buying tens of millions of {dollars} price of the President’s memecoin, $TRUMP, which made Solar its largest holder and entitled him to a personal dinner with the President. ^[7] Mr. Solar and his companies then went on to develop into an early investor within the Trump household’s bigger cryptocurrency enterprise, World Liberty Monetary (WLFI), offering tens of tens of millions in assist to WLFI’s governance token and its stablecoin, USD1.^[8]

Along with Mr. Solar’s efforts to curry favor with the President, his firm, Tron, can be controversial all through the crypto ecosystem due to its position in facilitating a disproportionate quantity of illicit finance, together with money-laundering, sanctions evasion, and terrorism financing.^[9] A report by the United Nations Workplace on Medication and Crime revealed that in 2024, the Tether stablecoin on Tron’s blockchain had develop into “a most well-liked alternative for crypto cash launderers in East and Southeast Asia.”^[10]

Crypto-fueled crime has skyrocketed since President Trump got here again into workplace. In only one yr, from 2024 to 2025, illicit finance roughly tripled from $59 billion to $154 billion.^[11] Tron has performed an outsized position on this dynamic. Whereas Tron accounts for a 3rd of all fee tokens within the crypto ecosystem by some metrics, 58% of all illicit finance in crypto occurred on Tron’s community in 2024.^[12]

It is a clear instance of how President Trump’s blatant crypto corruption creates again doorways for his household’s enterprise companions, making a pay-to-play enforcement regime that turns a blind eye to grave threats to nationwide safety and shopper safety. As a part of the Everlasting Subcommittee on Investigation’s (“PSI” or “the Subcommittee”) ongoing inquiry into the illicit use of cryptocurrencies, please present info and data attentive to the next requests by April 13, 2026.

1. All data^[13] and communications^[14] between the Division of Enforcement and SEC senior management, together with however not restricted to the Workplace of the Chairman, since January 20, 2025, referring or regarding potential enforcement actions in opposition to cryptocurrency corporations, together with however not restricted to any firm owned or affiliated with Justin Solar or Changpeng Zhao, in any other case often called “CZ.”
2. All data and communications despatched or obtained between the Workplace of the Chairman and any member of the Trump household or Witkoff household, or any agent thereof relating to World Liberty Monetary or the $TRUMP token since January 20, 2025
3. All data regarding the settlement the SEC entered with cryptocurrency corporations since January 20, 2025, together with however not restricted to any firm owned by or affiliated with Justin Solar and Changpeng Zhao.
4. Please present an inventory of every other enforcement issues between January 20, 2025 and March 16, 2026, by which the Director of the Division of Enforcement’s suggestions for an enforcement matter had been overruled by the Workplace of the Chairman, or every other senior chief of the SEC.

Please contact the Subcommittee ought to you may have any questions on responding to those requests. Thanks in your consideration to this matter.

Sincerely,

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