SEC to pay $150K, release two documents in FOIA settlement

The Securities and Exchange Commission agreed to pay $150,000 in legal fees, make two previously withheld documents public and review its records and text-message preservation procedures as part of a settlement announced July 22, 2026.

History Associates, working with Coinbase, filed the public-records lawsuit on June 27, 2024. The case resolved before a judge issued a ruling on the agency’s conduct. The settlement does not include any admission of wrongdoing by the SEC.

The agreement requires the SEC to release two documents that had been withheld in response to the FOIA request. The settlement does not specify the contents of those records or a public date for their release.

The agency also agreed to review its policies and technical controls for retaining records and preserving officials’ text messages. The settlement does not detail the full scope of that review or set a timeline for any changes.

The review follows a September 2025 report from the SEC inspector general, which found that avoidable device-management errors led to the loss of former Chair Gary Gensler’s text messages dated Oct. 18, 2022, through Sept. 6, 2023. The inspector general’s report concluded the missing messages likely included federal records.

Because agencies can only search for and produce records they have retained, the inspector general report was central to the FOIA dispute. The settlement does not indicate that any of the lost messages were recovered.

Paul Grewal, Coinbase’s chief legal officer, called the outcome “a win for transparency.” Coinbase backed the records request to obtain internal communications related to the agency’s work on cryptocurrency policy and enforcement.

A prior records suit supported by Coinbase led to the disclosure of correspondence about how banking regulators handled cryptocurrency-related accounts. Observers expect the released documents and any public account of the SEC’s preservation review to clarify what records will be available in future requests.

The settlement closes this lawsuit but leaves questions about the SEC’s future recordkeeping practices, the timing of the document releases and what specific steps the agency will take to preserve texts and other ephemeral communications.