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For Immediate Release
December, 07 2023, 03:26pm EDT
Contact:
Henry Burke, burke@therevolvingdoorproject.org
The Revolving Door Project, A Government Ethics Watchdog, Alerts Media Of Possibility That CFTC Chair Rostin Behnam Is Considering Leaving Government To Cash Out In Private Industry
President Biden’s Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chair Has Used A Light-Touch Approach To Regulation Throughout His Tenure, Making A Lot Of Friends On Wall Street And In The World Of Cryptocurrency. He May Be The Biden Administration’s Highest-Profile Regulator To Revolve Thus Far.
In response to rumors that CFTC Chair Rostin Behnam is considering ending his tenure at the agency prematurely for a post in private industry, Revolving Door Project Executive Director Jeff Hauser released the following statement:
“Regulators taking positions with the industries that they were recently charged with reigning in is corrosive to good governance and public trust in government. This issue is magnified with the Commodities Future Trading Commission—an agency tasked with regulating the derivatives industry that crashed the global economy in 2007 and one that Behnam has thrust forward as a potential chief regulator of the fraudulent world of cryptocurrency.”
“Despite what many in Washington seem to believe, the revolving door between private industry and government not only has the image of impropriety, it is a genuine hindrance to effective policymaking. Government officials who know they will seek post-government employment with the industries they have regulated are incentivized to maintain a friendly if not openly deferential relationship.”
“Behnam’s choices at the CFTC could easily be seen through this prism. His recent decision to vote with Republican CFTC commissioners to enact a Trump administration-proposed weakening of swaps regulation well into the Biden administration is a great example of this, as is his cozy relationship with cryptocurrency companies including the now-bankrupt FTX and its criminal former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried.”
“If Behnam does leave the CFTC years before his term expires to pursue a lucrative job with the industries he recently oversaw, President Biden should seize the opportunity to fill his vacated seat with a public servant dedicated to the furtherance of the public good rather than their own financial situation.”
The Revolving Door Project has submitted a FOIA request seeking records of communications between Behnam and the CFTC Acting Inspector or CFTC Agency Ethics Officials to monitor any official ethics disclosures on his potential future employment and will continue to file updated FOIA requests in the coming months. Any disclosures uncovered by these requests will be shared with the media immediately.
The Revolving Door Project’s Henry Burke and Kenny Stancil wrote a piece for The American Prospect on the potential of Behnam leaving the CFTC and the relative odds of his post-government employment. The piece can be read here.
The Revolving Door Project (RDP) scrutinizes executive branch appointees to ensure they use their office to serve the broad public interest, rather than to entrench corporate power or seek personal advancement.
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The groups targeted were Antifa Ost in Germany; the Informal Anarchist Federation/International Revolutionary Front (FAI/FRI) in Italy; Armed Proletarian Justice in Greece; and Revolutionary Class Self-Defense, also in Greece.
The State Department said:
The designation of Antifa Ost and other violent Antifa groups supports President Trump’s National Security Presidential Memorandum-7, an initiative to disrupt self-described ‘anti-fascism’ networks, entities, and organizations that use political violence and terroristic acts to undermine democratic institutions, constitutional rights, and fundamental liberties.
Groups affiliated with this movement ascribe to revolutionary anarchist or Marxist ideologies, including anti-Americanism, ‘anti-capitalism,’ and anti-Christianity, using these to incite and justify violent assaults domestically and overseas.
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Though Greece was one exception, where far-left violence was more prevalent than far-right violence, Mary Bossis, an emeritus professor of international security at Piraeus University in Athens, told The Guardian that Greece's anti-fascist movement has little to do with it.
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While most social movements have some violent adherents, Bossis said, "that does not mean, as in the case of antifa, that the whole movement is either violent or supportive of terrorism. In fact, it is very much not the case… Standing against fascism does not make someone a terrorist.”
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Ken Klippenstein, an independent investigative journalist who has warned about NSPM-7 since its release, noted that this marks the first time that an entity in any of these three European countries has ever been slapped with the label of an FTO.
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