by Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Book Substack
SOUTH BRONX/SDNY, July 28 – With the US Congress passing the cryptocurrency GENIUS Act, Ripple Labs as well as Circle and others, have applied for banking charters to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.
Inner City Press asked the IMF about the GENIUS Act on July 24, here.
Later on July 24, the OCC responded to its FOIA request for communications related to Circle's proposal by stating "[p]lease provide the email addresses of Circle's counsel as well as the specific OCC personnel whose correspondence you would like for us to search.
This is a travesty: it is the OCC which knows the identity and address of applicant Circle's counsel, and of the OCC personnel. Inner City Press has appealed:
"This is an appeal of the absurd FOIA constructive denials by the OCC's Pauline Byrd of Inner City Press' requests for the applications by Circle, Ripple/XRP and BitGo. Ms. Byrd demanded that Inner City Press provide the OCC with the names and email addresses of the lawyers of the applicant(s) and even of the OCC staff who dealt with them - when that information is in the possession of the OCC.
On this appeal, consider: Kevin Murphy Associate General Counsel Circle Internet Financial, LLC 1 Lincoln Street, Suite 31-113 Boston, MA 02111 & Josh Boehm & Dana Syracuse Paul Hastings LLP 200 Park Avenue New York, NY 10166
The responsive record are not limited to those - we are providing that in order to get the records we timely requested. Given the fast expiring comment period, this is an appeal of the constructive denial of expedited processing. By Ms. Byrd's logic, the public can never get records during the comment period. That is absurd.
Inner City Press appealed. On July 28 the OCC left a voicemail message and Inner City Press returned the call. Then this: "Good afternoon Mr. Lee, Thank you for taking the time to speak with me this morning. Per our conversation, you agreed to receive email communications from both the licensing office and OCC’s leadership team, including: Comptroller Jonathan Gould Kate Tyrrell Greg Coleman Jay Gallagher Stuart Feldstein Larry Hattix Michael Brickman You stated that you are open to withdrawing your appeal if we are able to release a response to your request before the end of the comment period." Depends on how substantive a response...
On July 18, Fair Finance Watch filed timely opposition to Ripple's application:
On behalf of Fair Finance Watch, this is a timely comment in opposition to the application to charter the proposed Ripple National Trust Bank.... as to Ripple under the statutory factors that must be considered including managerial resources, consider: "Ripple’s CEO distances firm from federal investigations into Linqto’s shares scandal," and "Is Ripple at Risk?" In terms of lack of transparency, consider for the record: "Is Ripple Selling XRP Behind the Scenes? On-Chain Clues Emerge."
FFW will have more to say when it receives responses to its and Inner City Press' FOIA requests (see below). On the current record, the application(s) could not legitimately be approved.
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