Former CFTC Commissioner Brian Quintenz has publicly revealed private text conversations he had with Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, the founders of the
$180.59M
cryptocurrency exchange.
Quintenz, who was originally tapped by President Donald Trump to serve as a leader within the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), shared screenshots of the text exchange on the X platform on September 10.
In his post, he suggested that he was concerned that President Trump might have received a skewed account from the Winklevoss twins, and wanted to present his perspective.
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The messages include one from Tyler Winklevoss addressing Gemini’s legal challenges with the CFTC, a situation that concluded with a $5 million settlement. In the text, dated July 25, Tyler asserted that the regulatory body obstructed the company’s ability to mount a fair defense in court.
According to Tyler, “The CFTC engaged in excessive abuse of the deliberative process privilege, among other forms of misconduct, hindering our capacity to adequately defend ourselves during the legal proceedings.”
Quintenz states that the Winklevoss brothers were seeking assurances regarding what they described as the agency’s alleged “lawfare trophy hunting”.
He has stated that he declined to provide such assurances. Quintenz clarified:
These texts, in my view, demonstrate clearly what they were attempting to obtain from me, and what I firmly refused to promise.
He further indicated that, subsequent to this exchange, Cameron and Tyler reportedly contacted President Trump to request a delay in his confirmation process.
In other news, Kristin Johnson announced her departure from the CFTC, effective September 3. Read more about her reasons for leaving.