SEC pays $150,000 as Coinbase-backed Freedom Of Information Act settlement releases two withheld documents
The SEC agreed to pay $150,000 in legal fees and review its records-retention and text-message preservation practices to settle a Coinbase-backed FOIA lawsuit filed by History Associates. No court ruled on the SEC’s conduct, and the settlement includes no admission of wrongdoing. The agency also must release two previously withheld documents, though their contents and timing are not public. The dispute matters because FOIA depends on agencies keeping records in the first place. An SEC inspector general later found that avoidable device-management errors caused former Chair Gary Gensler’s texts from Oct. 18, 2022, through Sept. 6, 2023, to be lost, and those messages likely included federal records. The settlement may therefore affect how the SEC preserves communications in future crypto-related requests and enforcement matters. The key question is whether the review leads to real preservation improvements, not just closure of one lawsuit.
