Prosecutor Says US Attorney’s Office Will Pursue Fewer Crypto Cases | PYMNTS.com

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan reportedly will pursue fewer cases related to cryptocurrency.

Scott Hartman, co-chief of the securities and commodities task force at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, said Friday (Nov. 15) that the office has fewer prosecutors working on crypto cases than it did during the crypto winter, Reuters reported Friday.

“We brought a lot of big cases in the wake of the crypto winter — there were a lot of important fraud cases to bring there — but we know our regulatory partners are very active in this space,” Hartman said at a conference hosted by the Practicing Law Institute in New York, according to the report.

The Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s Office secured several convictions related to crypto crime, including that of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, the report said.

Current U.S. attorney Damian Williams, who was appointed by President Joe Biden, is set to be replaced by Jay Clayton, who was nominated for the post by President-elect Donald Trump, per the report.

Clayton led the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) during Trump’s first term and was less aggressive at pursuing crypto cases than current SEC Chair Gary Gensler, the report said.

It was reported Tuesday (Nov. 12) that the price of bitcoin leaped after Trump’s election victory, driven by enthusiasm for the advent of a pro-crypto White House.

While Trump at one time called cryptocurrencies a scam, he changed his tune during his third bid for the White House, pledging to turn the U.S. into the “crypto capital of the planet” and to establish a national bitcoin stockpile.

Trump has also been a vocal critic of Gensler, who has taken a tough stance on the crypto industry. The president-elect’s promise to replace Gensler with a more crypto-sympathetic regulator has led to speculation that the SEC would take a more hands-off stance under a new chair.

In other sectors of the economy, experts predicted Trump would roll back some of the antitrust policies instituted under Biden. This could include abandoning the Department of Justice’s efforts to break up Google, which has been under scrutiny for monopolistic practices.