President Donald Trump’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chair, Wall Street’s top cop, just sold his financial services firm for more than $25 million — and is set to receive a massive tax break on the proceeds, according to new federal ethics disclosures obtained by the Lever.
Paul Atkins, who spent years helping Wall Street actors fend off federal regulators, has refused to disclose who’s behind his tax-free payout or whether his benefactors have business before the agency he now runs, even after lawmakers suggested the deal resembled a “pre-bribe.”
Atkins, a former SEC commissioner and corporate lawyer who has established himself in recent years as a trusted Wall Street consultant, assumed the top role at the SEC in April. He is now the wealthiest SEC chair in history, with an estimated net worth of $327 million between him and his spouse.
Atkins is seen as an ardent advocate of the cryptocurrency industry and friend to Wall Street, and news of his pick for the position was received by corporate America as an early sign of the second Trump administration’s full-throated embrace of crypto and financiers.
Atkins’s first ethics filings in March revealed the extent of his investments in Wall Street: up until his nomination, he served on the advisory board of Securitize Inc., a crypto firm that has partnered with Wall Street investment giant BlackRock. He also advised fintech companies and held positions with various crypto advocacy groups, such as serving as cochair of the Token Alliance, which publicly criticized SEC regulation.
But the crown jewel of his business interests is Patomak Global Partners, the financial services firm that he founded in 2009. Atkins’s firm advised Wall Street on how to…
Auteur: Katya Schwenk
