Ripple Exec Jokes Top SEC Lawyer Will Become Movie Critic

Ripple executives have mocked Jorge Tenreiro, the demoted lawyer of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) who was leading the agency’s crypto enforcement efforts.

David Schwartz, the chief technology officer at Ripple, has facetiously predicted that Tenreiro will become a movie critic.

Stuart Alderoty, Ripple’s top lawyer, joked that Tenreiro had been reassigned to Macrodata Refinement, referring to the department where workers have to classify numbers with seemingly little purpose in hit TV show “Severance.”

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has suggested that Tenreiro’s next career move could be working for the tech support at Best Buy. “I guess he could try Geek Squad next?” he quipped.

Yesterday, the New York Times reported that the SEC was scaling back its crypto enforcement unit, with an unnamed top litigator being moved to an IT office. The report described the move as an “unfair demotion.”

The Wall Street Journal later confirmed that Tenreiro, who was leading the cases against Ripple and Coinbase, was the top lawyer that the New York Times originally mentioned.

Prior to his demotion, Tenreiro was the Chief Litigation Counsel at the SEC.

Tenreiro, a graduate of Yale Law School, initially joined the SEC back in 2013.

Following the resignation of Chair Gary Gensler, the new SEC administration has quickly moved to overhaul its crypto policy. It ditched the SAB 121 rule, making it possible for large banks to custody crypto, while also creating a crypto-focused task force to establish clear rules of the road for the industry.

However, it remains to be seen what will happen to the remaining crypto enforcement cases, including the appeal against Ripple.