Coinbase’s Paul Grewal Critiques FDIC’s Lack of Transparency – BitRss

Paul Grewal, the Chief Legal Officer of Coinbase, criticized the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s (FDIC) approach to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. He pointed out that the FDIC exhibits restrictive practices in its responses to these requests.

Shortcomings in FOIA Requests

Grewal asserted that the FDIC does not conduct full-text searches in its Regional Automatic Document Distribution (RADD) database. He also stated that the agency limits the disclosed data range by rejecting requests for documents stored in collaboration tools like Microsoft Teams.

Coinbase argued that the FDIC marked certain documents as contentious or attorney-client privileged, thus hindering their dissemination. Grewal indicated that at least 150 documents were missing from the FOIA responses, raising concerns about the agency’s accountability.

Concerns Regarding “Pause Letter” Usage

Grewal claimed that the FDIC’s “pause letters,” sent to banks requesting the cessation of services for cryptocurrency clients, are excessively redacted. He pointed out that these documents are protected under FOIA Exemption 8 and are being misused to conceal information that is not …