Silvergate CEO Alan Lane has denied nepotism allegations before US Senators. report From The Wall Street Journal, Dec. 21.
Last month, November 7th, Silvergate Capital announced two changes to executive positions within the company. Unfortunately, we neglected to mention at the time that Lane’s son-in-law, Tyler Pearson, would be affected by the company shuffle.
Pearson previously served as Silvergate’s chief risk officer, but was reassigned to the equivalent deputy head of that role during the shuffle. He now reports to her Kate Fraher, who assumed the role of Chief Risk Officer after serving as his COO at the company.
Lane denied the change was due to performance issues on Pearson’s part. It was “far beyond Mr. Pearson,” he added.
Silvergate is often accused of nepotism in the shortseller community, as it employs at least two of Alan Lane’s immediate family members. His son, Chris Lane, was recruited by Silvergate and has a major role in the business system. Alan Lane’s son-in-law, Jason Brenier, is also the company’s trading director.
Three US Senators, including prominent cryptocurrency commentator Elizabeth Warren, first asked Silvergate for answers on these and other issues on Dec. 5.
Senators originally asked today’s question letter That day: “Why did Silvergate replace Tyler Pearson as Chief Risk Officer?”
The question was tangentially related to the senator’s more serious concerns about the relationship between failed crypto exchanges FTX and Silvergate. Silvergate implemented a leadership change the same weekend that FTX began to collapse, leading the senator to suspect it was related to his FTX connections at the company.
Yesterday, the senator claimed that Silvergate’s account was at the center of FTX’s collapse, based on conversations with the former company. But these conversations yielded few concrete details about what happened.
