President-elect Donald Trump has nominated Matt Gaetz to be the next attorney general of the United States. Gaetz is a former representative from Florida who was under investigation by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and House Ethics Committee for sexually trafficking minors and who took part in efforts to prevent votes from counting in 2020.
This nomination draws greater attention to the relationship between Gaetz and the crypto industry, a frequent target of the DOJ.
Joel Greenberg
Joel Greenberg, the former Seminole County Tax Collector, was one of the individuals who was cooperating with the DOJ in its investigation of Gaetz.
Greenberg, who is a long-time associate of Gaetz, admitted that he had paid a 17-year-old girl for sex. The New York Times reported that he told prosecutors that Gaetz also had sex with the girl.
Greenberg has repeatedly found ways to integrate bitcoin and crypto into his criminal and unethical behavior. These activities include supposedly offering Roger Stone $250,000 in bitcoin in exchange for Stone advocating for a pardon for Greenberg.
Additionally, Greenberg used public funds to purchase bitcoin mining machines, which he hooked up at a public building and subsequently lost in a fire.
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Furthermore, Greenberg regularly contracted Keith Ingersoll for work through the Seminole County Tax Collector’s Office. Ingersoll was one of the executives behind the Organic Fresh Coin scam, which was operated in cooperation with the late Mikhail Morgulis, an Honorary Consul of Belarus to the Florida Consulate. Ingersoll has been sentenced to nine years in prison for fraud.
Matt Gaetz’s crypto policies
Gaetz himself also has multiple policies that the cryptocurrency industry seems to support, receiving an A grade from Stand With Crypto.
One of the things raising his grade is that Gaetz has proposed a bill that would require the Internal Revenue Service to accept bitcoin as payment for income taxes.
Additionally, he has supported the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act (FIT21) and has advocated against the Federal Reserve offering Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) to consumers.
