Circle appoints Homeland Security official as legal chief

Cryptocurrency exchange Circle has appointed Gus Coldebella, a former executive in the US Department of Homeland Security, as its Chief Legal Officer.

Coldebella, who is responsible for all legal, compliance, regulatory and government affairs for Circle, spent four years at Homeland Security and became its acting General Counsel, overseeing more than 1,700 lawyers. He previously worked in private practice, counselling clients on litigation, government regulation and enforcement, corporate governance and technology-driven risk issues.

Bad actors

According to Jeremy Allaire and Sean Neville, Circle’s Founders, the hiring of Coldebella is part of its mission to promote smart legal frameworks that encourage growth of the Internet of Value, “all while we also work tirelessly with government partners to thwart those bad actors who seek to abuse the freedoms created by technical innovation or undermine confidence in our financial system”.

They add: “Embracing the complex legal intersections between finance, crypto, and emerging regulatory issues is critical to improving and reimagining the global economic system.”

The appointment follows the hiring of Robert Bench, former compliance leader from Santander, PwC and the US Treasury Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, as Circle’s Head Regulatory Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer.

Circle, which is backed by Goldman Sachs, recently revealed its Poloniex crypto exchange had added support for QTUM – the native token of the Qtum blockchain, which is a smart contract platform that combines aspects of both Bitcoin and Ethereum.