Senator Cynthia Lummis has threatened criminal referrals for FDIC employees accused of destroying records related to “Operation Choke Point 2.0.”
Whistleblowers at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation in the United States have alerted lawmakers to purported agency efforts to suppress and destroy evidence related to what industry advocates refer to as an anti-crypto campaign.
The initiative, known as “Operation Choke Point 2.0” (OCP 2.0), entails a multi-agency crackdown on cryptocurrency businesses, with the primary goal of denying the fledgling industry access to financial institutions.
Senator Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming advised agency workers not to tamper with OCP 2.0 papers in a letter to FDIC Chair Marty Gruenberg on January 16.
Lummis threatened criminal referrals for anyone found to be involved in the claims and urged the preservation of all pertinent papers, including those relating to the wind-downs of Signature Bank and Silvergate Bank. Notably, Gruenberg has announced his resignation ahead of the new Trump administration.
Whistleblowers have also informed me that management is closely monitoring staff access to these materials in order to prevent them from being delivered to the Senate before being destroyed and that certain employees have been threatened with legal action in order to keep them from speaking out. This is unlawful and unacceptable. Please guarantee that your personnel stops destroying materials and retaliating quickly. If it is discovered that you or your staff willfully destroyed materials or attempted to obstruct the Senate’s oversight powers, criminal referrals to the US Department of Justice will be made promptly.
To be honest, I almost shed a tear while reading this. Justice is on its way. We’ve been fighting for the truth for two years, and we’re finally about to receive it.
— Nic Carter (@nic__carter), January 16, 2025.
The struggle for OCP 2.0-related documentation has been a point of contention between the FDIC and cryptocurrency participants. Giants like Coinbase have sued the agency for access to papers, including the so-called “pause letter,” which purportedly instructed financial institutions to “de-bank” cryptocurrency enterprises.
A judge ordered the FDIC to submit the required documentation. However, Coinbase claimed that the submitted information was significantly redacted. A second court judgment admonished the federal agency for ill faith in the case and required the FDIC to cooperate fully. According to Coinbase CLO Paul Grewal, the FDIC’s most recent turnover demonstrated an attempt to conceal OCP 2.0, as the agency unexpectedly provided more papers following the court’s investigation.
