In an 1819 News op-ed, Senator Tuberville announced that he and five of his colleagues in Congress have asked the Attorney General and the SEC Chair to review inconsistences in the congressional testimony and SEC filings of Prometheum.
WASHINGTON — U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) and five congressional colleagues sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler requesting a review of inconsistencies in congressional testimony given by digital asset firm Prometheum, Inc.’s Co-CEO Aaron Kaplan and the company’s SEC filings.
Senator Tuberville announced the letter in an op-ed published by 1819 News.
“Lying to Congress is a crime. Providing misleading information to investors in SEC filings constitutes securities fraud,” said Senator Tuberville. “…If Prometheum ended its tech buildout with its China-based partners in December 2019 as Mr. Kaplan led Congress to believe, that development should have been reflected in the company’s SEC filings. Instead, Prometheum continued to tout its China-tainted tech partnership to regulators and potential investors for nearly two more years.”
Prometheum’s largest outside investor is a China-based company – Shanghai Wanxiang Blockchain, Inc. (Wanxiang) and its subsidiary HashKey Digital Asset Group, Ltd. (HashKey) – with deep ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) that were documented in a Wall Street Journal op-ed written by Senator Tuberville last month. HashKey holds a seat on Prometheum’s board, and until October 2021, Prometheum benefitted from a formal technology development agreement with its Chinese partners.
In written testimony submitted to Congress for a June 13 House Financial Services Committee hearing on the future of digital assets, Mr. Kaplan indicated Prometheum began developing its technology platform without influence from Wanxiang or HashKey in December 2019. However, SEC filings submitted by Prometheum throughout 2020 and for most of 2021 indicate the technology development partnership was still in force until October 2021. The letter sent to the Attorney General and the SEC Chair by Senator Tuberville and his congressional colleagues requests a review of these inconsistencies.
Last month, Senator Tuberville sent an oversight letter to the SEC and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), objecting to those agencies’ approval of Prometheum Ember Capital, LLC – a subsidiary of Prometheum, Inc. – as a special purpose broker-dealer to custody digital asset securities. Senator Tuberville recently discussed Prometheum’s China ties on Fox Business’ Kudlow.
Senator Tommy Tuberville represents Alabama in the United States Senate and is a member of the Senate Armed Services, Agriculture, Veterans’ Affairs, and HELP Committees.
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