The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of the United States will be shutting down one of its regional offices following a court order that requires the regulator to pay approximately $1.8 million in attorney and receivership fees.
According to a notice released by the SEC on June 4, the Salt Lake Regional Office will be closed in 2024. This particular office is one of eleven regional offices across the country. The reason cited for the closure is the significant decrease in staff at the office. The SEC plans to shift its operations to Denver.
The announcement comes shortly after Judge Robert Shelby dismissed the SEC’s civil lawsuit against DEBT Box, a company accused of running a $50 million illegal cryptocurrency scheme. In addition to the dismissal, the judge ordered the SEC to pay around $1 million for attorney fees and costs, as well as $750,000 for receiver fees and costs.
The SEC had filed the lawsuit against DEBT Box in July 2023, but in March, Judge Shelby found that the SEC had engaged in bad faith conduct regarding a temporary restraining order to freeze DEBT Box’s assets. As a result, the judge imposed sanctions on the SEC, requiring them to cover all attorney fees and costs related to the relief that was improperly granted ex parte.
Following the handling of the DEBT Box case, two SEC lawyers who were based at the Salt Lake Regional Office reportedly resigned. It is unclear whether their departure played a role in the significant decrease in staff at the office.
DEBT Box’s chief marketing officer, Miguel Francis-Santiago, stated that the closure of the Salt Lake City office is a direct response to the dismissal of the DEBT Box case. He believes that if the case is revisited by the SEC, it should be brought back before Judge Shelby to ensure that there is no misconduct or abuse of power.
The SEC is currently pursuing enforcement actions against several cryptocurrency firms, including Coinbase, Binance, Kraken, and Ripple. In May, Terraform Labs and its co-founder Do Kwon announced that they had reached a preliminary settlement in their case with the SEC.
Note: This article has been updated to include a statement from DEBT Box.