The
head
of
the
U.S.
Commodity
Futures
Trading
Commission
(CFTC),
Rostin
Behnam,
had
a
lot
of
contact
with
Sam
Bankman-Friend,
the
disgraced
former
CEO
of
FTX,
but
lawmakers
suggest
he
hasn’t
been
fully
forthcoming
about
those
interactions.
So,
Sens.
Elizabeth
Warren
(D-Mass.)
and
Chuck
Grassley
(R-Iowa)
are
demanding
more.
Warren
and
Grassley
sent
Behnam
a
letter
calling
for
“an
accounting
of
all
meetings
and
correspondence
between
you
and
Sam
Bankman-Fried
during
your
tenure.”
Over
a
14-month
period,
CFTC
officials
had
met
with
Bankman-Fried
and
his
team
as
many
as
10
times
at
the
agency,
and
Behnam
told
lawmakers
in
2022
that
he’d
also
exchanged
“a
number
of
messages”
with
the
FTX
founder,
who
was
recently
sentenced
to
25
years
in
prison
for
the
massive
fraud
perpetrated
there.
For
his
part,
Behnam
and
his
agency
have
at
least
one
significant
reason
for
communicating
so
often
with
the
FTX
CEO:
He
was
trying
to
push
a
part
of
his
company
–
the
LedgerX
division
that
was
spun
off
again
after
the
collapse
to
return
to
its
original
name
–
into
a
unique
position
to
directly
handle
margined
derivatives
trading
for
customers
without
a
go-between
firm.
The
failed
effort
had
even
been
the
topic
of
an
in-house
roundtable
discussion
at
the
CFTC
in
which
SBF
starred
on
a
big
panel
otherwise
filled
with
industry
opponents.
In
a
Senate
hearing
in
2022
just
after
the
meltdown
of
FTX,
Grassley
and
another
senator
asked
Behnam
for
information
on
his
and
his
staff’s
meetings
and
text
conversations
with
Bankman-Fried.
Afterwards,
Sen.
Josh
Hawley
(R-Mo.)
asked
for
records
of
correspondence
between
FTX,
the
CFTC,
other
government
agencies
and
the
White
House.
The
new
letter
from
Warren
and
Grassley,
dated
April
12,
again
asks
for
such
correspondence,
detailing
that
they
want
copies
of
all
written
communications,
plus
minutes
and
timelines
of
interactions.
“We
just
received
these
letters,
so
we
will
work
with
the
office
to
get
them
the
information
they
need,”
said
Steven
Adamske,
a
spokesman
for
the
CFTC.
The
chief
of
the
other
U.S.
markets
regulator,
Securities
and
Exchange
Commission
Chair
Gary
Gensler,
has
similarly
drawn
scrutiny
for
his
agency’s
interactions
with
SBF
in
the
months
before
the
company’s
dramatic
collapse.
UPDATE
(April
15,
2024,
20:36
UTC):
Adds
response
from
CFTC.
