-
The
U.S.
Securities
and
Exchange
Commission
complained
to
a
federal
judge
that
Coinbase
tried
to
dig
too
deep
when
it
went
after
the
records
of
agency
Chair
Gary
Gensler. -
The
SEC
made
the
latest
filing
in
the
court
case
in
which
the
regulator
is
pursuing
the
U.S.
exchange
for
violating
securities
laws.
Lawyers
for
the
U.S.
Securities
and
Exchange
Commission
(SEC)
are
pushing
back
against
what
they
describe
as
Coinbase’s
“breathtakingly
broad”
subpoena
requests
searching
for
“essentially
all
documents
that
in
any
way
relate
to
crypto.”
The
court
documents,
filed
Monday,
are
the
latest
jab
in
the
ongoing
fight
between
the
SEC
and
Coinbase
over
the
crypto
exchange’s
attempt
to
subpoena
the
agency
and
its
employees,
including
Chair
Gary
Gensler,
for
communications
and
other
records
that
could
potentially
be
useful
for
Coinbase’s
defense
in
its
upcoming
trial
against
the
regulatory
agency.
The
SEC
filed
civil
charges
against
Coinbase
last
year,
accusing
the
crypto
exchange
of
operating
as
an
unregistered
securities
exchange,
broker
and
clearing
agency.
The
SEC
also
charged
Coinbase
with
the
unregistered
sale
of
securities
in
connection
with
its
staking
products.
In
April,
Coinbase
served
the
SEC
with
its
first
request
for
the
production
of
documents.
Two
months
later,
Coinbase
told
the
SEC
that
it
also
planned
to
subpoena
Gensler’s
personal
communications
related
to
crypto
over
the
course
of
his
tenure,
plus
four
years
before
he
was
appointed
Chairman.
Coinbase
also
served
a
similar
subpoena
on
Massachusetts
Institute
of
Technology
(MIT),
where
Gensler
taught
a
class
on
blockchain
technology
before
joining
the
SEC.
However,
the
company
recently
informed
the
court
that
it
wouldn’t
seek
records
from
outside
his
agency
role.
The
request
for
Gensler’s
personal
communications
appears
to
have
been
a
bridge
too
far
for
the
SEC,
which
has
described
the
subpoena
as
a
“blatant
impropriety.”
In
a
letter
to
the
court
on
June
28,
the
SEC
argued
that
the
judge
overseeing
the
case,
District
Judge
Katherine
Polk
Failla
of
the
Southern
District
of
New
York
(SDNY),
should
reject
Coinbase’s
request.
Failla
called
for
a
pre-trial
conference,
held
by
phone
on
July
11,
to
discuss
the
competing
requests.
From
the
outset,
Failla
appeared
to
be
bewildered
by
Coinbase’s
request
for
Gensler’s
personal
communications,
particularly
those
predating
his
appointment
as
SEC
Chairman.
“I
was
kind
of
surprised
and
not
in
a
good
way,”
Failla
said
of
Coinbase’s
motion
on
July
11.
“I
found
the
arguments,
at
least
as
articulated
in
the
July
3rd
response,
to
border
on
the
fatuous…
I
was
not
moved
by
basically
any
of
the
arguments.”
Failla
sent
Coinbase
back
to
the
drawing
board,
ordering
its
lawyers
to
file
a
motion
to
compel
as
a
starting
point
for
the
parties
to
work
through
the
discovery
dispute.
Following
the
conference,
Coinbase
submitted
its
motion
to
compel
to
the
court
on
July
23,
slightly
narrowing
the
scope
of
its
request
but
otherwise
sticking
to
its
guns.
