Brian Brooks, the former chief legal officer of Coinbase, liquidated $4.6 million worth of stock options when he left the cryptocurrency exchange in March for a top role at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC).
Bloomberg reported the news on Tuesday, citing Brooks’ financial disclosures filed with the government. Besides the stock options, Brooks earned a $1.4 million salary in his 1.7 years tenure at Coinbase, per the report.
Brooks previously also worked for housing finance giant Fannie Mae, first as the company’s general counsel and later as a board member, and reportedly received $1.5 million from the company in the past two years. He still has some stocks and bonds left in his portfolio, worth between $1 million and $2.2 million, per the report.
Brooks is now making much less at the OCC – under $300,000 a year. He joined the OCC, chief regulator of U.S. national banks, as the first deputy comptroller and chief operating officer in March, and was later promoted to the acting comptroller in May.
At his role at the OCC, Brooks aims to allow crypto firms to be licensed as financial institutions on a national level rather than on a state-by-state level. He also wants to address issues crypto firms face when accessing banking services.
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