Nearly a year’s worth of text messages sent and received by former SEC Chair Gary Gensler were permanently erased due to a series of preventable errors and IT missteps, according to a recent watchdog report. The texts, which spanned from October 2022 to September 2023, disappeared during one of the most turbulent periods for the crypto industry, including the collapse of FTX and a series of major enforcement actions against leading exchanges.

The report found that Gensler’s government-issued phone stopped syncing with the SEC’s device management system in July 2023. Despite warnings and technical issues, the agency’s IT department rolled out a new policy in August that required wiping any device not connected for 45 days. When Gensler noticed SEC apps missing from his phone in September, staff performed a hasty factory reset, deleting all messages and data from the prior year.

This loss included texts related to ongoing enforcement actions, settlement negotiations, and discussions with other government officials. The inspector general described the episode as “avoidable,” pointing out missed alerts, flawed procedures, lack of recent backups, and poor communication with technology vendors. The lost messages contained federal records that should have been preserved, potentially impacting the SEC’s obligations under public records laws.

Industry leaders, especially from the crypto community, condemned the incident, characterizing it as the destruction of critical evidence during active litigation and investigations. Following the scandal, the SEC has disabled text messaging on most agency devices and pledged a series of technology and oversight reforms to prevent future data losses, with implementation deadlines set through early 2026.