The Securities and Exchange Commission and the US Justice Department’s Eastern District of New York office are investigating financial transfers between DCG and Genesis’s crypto-lending unit, called Genesis Global Capital, he said.
US authorities are also looking into what investors were told about those transactions, Bloomberg said in its report late Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.
“DCG has a strong culture of integrity and has always conducted business lawfully. We are not aware of or have reason to believe that there is an investigation by the Eastern District of New York into DCG,” the company told Bloomberg.
Pressure is mounting on DCG following the implosion of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX crypto empire. Genesis parent shut down its wealth management unit last week, citing a “crypto winter” and significant headwinds for the industry.
But in November, Genesis Global Capital halted client withdrawals after FTX’s collapse triggered a rush of outflows, draining the firm’s liquidity. The Genesis derivatives business had $175 million locked up in FTX trading accounts.
Amid cash-flow problems and citing “unprecedented industry challenges,” Genesis last week cut 30% of its workforce in another round of downsizing.
Meanwhile, DCG is embroiled in a public battle with crypto platform Gemini after its co-founder Cameron Winklevoss said the crypto giant owes its clients almost $1 billion. Winklevoss accused DCG CEO Barry Silbert of being slow to find a way to pay customers of Gemini’s Earn interest-bearing account program.
DCG and US authorities did not respond to Insider’s request for comment.
