WASHINGTON, June 5 (Reuters) - Senator Elizabeth Warren, the top Democrat on the U.S. Senate Banking Committee, prodded President Donald Trump's derivatives regulator on Friday over recent reporting in The New York Times that reported on outside interference and favoritism allegedly benefiting the crypto and prediction markets industries.
• In a letter to Michael Selig, who took office in December as chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and is the sole sitting commissioner of the five-member
bipartisan agency, Warren cited reporting in the Times and elsewhere according to which agency leadership intervened to benefit companies backed by Trump allies and punished agency staff who stood in the way.
• CFTC representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday. The White House told The Times last month President Trump faced no conflicts of interest.
• Crypto companies and prediction markets have benefited under Trump's CFTC, which has dropped enforcement actions into the industries, and is working on friendly regulations with the stated purpose of sector growth.
• But congressional scrutiny of the prediction market sector is mounting amid concerns of insider trading.
• CFTC headcount is down sharply since last year to its lowest levels since the 2008 financial crisis and the agency's enforcement activity has also fallen.
• "Taken together, these are concerning signs of a CFTC beholden to political pressures and interests of the wealthy insiders, unbound by the rule of law and failing to protect investors and market integrity," Warren wrote.
(Reporting by Douglas Gillison in Washington; Editing by Aurora Ellis)
