PANews reported on February 7 that according to documents obtained by Bloomberg reporter Jason Leopold through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has recently been involved in several high-profile events, including legal correspondence between Tesla and the SEC, Gary Gensler's emails, the hacking of the SEC X account, and an AI deep fake image that affected the market.
• Tesla confidential letters: The SEC provided 23 pages of letters from Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink lawyers and the SEC regarding Musk’s settlement with the SEC and his attempt to apply for exemptions from some of the terms. Although these letters were marked as “confidential,” they were eventually made public, showing that Musk’s company hopes to avoid some regulatory restrictions.
• Gensler Emails: The FOIA documents include nearly 200 pages of emails from former SEC Chairman Gary Gensler, which are full of complaints about cryptocurrency scams, Tesla stock splits, short selling, etc. Gensler himself did not respond to these emails, but focused on the "Twitter release schedule", but the relevant content has been censored.
• SEC X account hacked: In January 2024, the SEC X (formerly Twitter) account posted a false message that it had approved a Bitcoin spot ETF, causing violent market fluctuations. FOIA documents show that the SEC's investigation report on this matter is highly confidential, and only 5 pages of heavily redacted documents were released.
• AI deep fakes affect the market: In May 2023, a fake photo of the Pentagon explosion generated by artificial intelligence spread on social media, causing a brief decline in US stocks. The SEC initially claimed that only one page of relevant records was found, but after a successful FOIA appeal, 20 pages of documents were eventually made public, revealing the panic caused by the incident on Wall Street.
• SEC Inspector General Report: A 20-page report from the SEC Inspector General details misleading statements to Congress by the SEC’s internal ombudsman, Tracey McNeil, who left before the investigation was completed, and irregularities in the complaint management process.
