Alex Levine, chief legal officer with TokenSoft Inc.TokenSoft Poaches Pangea Money Transfer's General Counsel Months Into the Job
"Everything moves here much faster than the regular world," Alex Levine said Tuesday, his second day on the job as TokenSoft's first chief legal officer.
December 17, 2019 at 05:14 PM
3 minute read
Fintech startup TokenSoft Inc. has lured cryptocurrency compliance guru Alex Levine away from the general counsel role he took at Pangea Money Transfer earlier this year.
"Everything moves here much faster than the regular world. To me it's just another great opportunity to help a company grow," Levine said Tuesday, his second day as TokenSoft's first chief legal officer.
Earlier in his career, Levine served as a senior counsel for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission. In his new role, he is focused on federal regulatory issues while TokenSoft's general counsel, Lawson Baker, oversees the operational aspects of the legal department.
Founded in 2017, San Francisco-based TokenSoft has created a platform that allows issuers of cryptocurrency or digital assets to comply with SEC regulations.
Meanwhile, Pangea, which is headquartered in Chicago, operates a platform for transferring money using mobile devices. Levine said the firm, which is now searching for a new general counsel, hired him to "help them move into the crypto blockchain."
"I think as time went on they were sort of not in the position to really take advantage of that as fast as they thought otherwise," Levine said. "My skill set really is on the federal regulatory side, not the state regulatory side."
Levine added, "The regulatory framework for blockchain, cryptocurrency, digital assets is going to be moving very fast in the next couple years and I wanted to go back to a place that has more of a touchpoint in the SEC and CFTC regulatory sphere so I could be part of that development."
An attempt to speak with a Pangea representative was not immediately successful.
Levine also serves as president of TokenSoft's affiliate transfer agent, Digital Transfer Agent Corp., or DTAC, which recently received approval from the SEC.
Levine began his career in 2002 as an associate at Kirkland & Ellis before joining the SEC in 2008 as a senior counsel. At the SEC, he oversaw investigations on hedge fund misconduct, investment adviser fraud, market manipulation, insider trading and Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations, according to his LinkedIn profile.
As a senior regulatory counsel at the CFTC, Levine had a hand in the rulemaking process under the Dodd-Frank Act. He left the agency in 2013 and entered the in-house realm as general counsel for Chicago investment firm Gladius Capital Management. He went on to fill in-house leadership roles for a series of fintech firms—LedgerX, Circuit Capital and TrustToken—before joining Pangea and, now, TokenSoft.
TokenSoft CEO Mason Borda said in a prepared statement that hiring Levine "was an important step for TokenSoft to ensure our customers receive best-in-class compliance tooling for security token issuances.
"Alex's regulatory and blockchain experience will ensure our transfer agent offering can meet the complex compliance needs of all security offerings," he added.
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
NOT FOR REPRINT
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
You Might Like
View All
Attorney Gives Up 25-Year Law Firm Career to Become CLO of Seattle's Pro Soccer Teams
Kristin Coleman Out as GC of Albemarle Amid Leadership Reshuffle
Trending Stories
Who Got The Work
Clark Hill members Vincent Roskovensky and Kevin B. Watson have entered appearances for Architectural Steel and Associated Products in a pending environmental lawsuit. The complaint, filed Aug. 27 in Pennsylvania Eastern District Court by Brodsky & Smith on behalf of Hung Trinh, accuses the defendant of discharging polluted stormwater from its steel facility without a permit in violation of the Clean Water Act. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Gerald J. Pappert, is 2:24-cv-04490, Trinh v. Architectural Steel And Associated Products, Inc.
Who Got The Work
Michael R. Yellin of Cole Schotz has entered an appearance for S2 d/b/a the Shoe Surgeon, Dominic Chambrone a/k/a Dominic Ciambrone and other defendants in a pending trademark infringement lawsuit. The case, filed July 15 in New York Southern District Court by DLA Piper on behalf of Nike, seeks to enjoin Ciambrone and the other defendants in their attempts to build an 'entire multifaceted' retail empire through their unauthorized use of Nike’s trademark rights. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald, is 1:24-cv-05307, Nike Inc. v. S2, Inc. et al.
Who Got The Work
Sullivan & Cromwell partner Adam S. Paris has entered an appearance for Orthofix Medical in a pending securities class action arising from a proposed acquisition of SeaSpine by Orthofix. The suit, filed Sept. 6 in California Southern District Court, by Girard Sharp and the Hall Firm, contends that the offering materials and related oral communications contained untrue statements of material fact. According to the complaint, the defendants made a series of misrepresentations about Orthofix’s disclosure controls and internal controls over financial reporting and ethical compliance. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Linda Lopez, is 3:24-cv-01593, O'Hara v. Orthofix Medical Inc. et al.
Who Got The Work
Attorneys from Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft and Pryor Cashman have entered appearances for Diageo Americas Supply d/b/a Ciroc Distilling Co. and Sony Songs, a division of Sony Music Publishing, respectively, in a pending lawsuit. The case was filed Sept. 10 in New York Southern District Court by the Bloom Firm and IP Legal Studio on behalf of Dawn Angelique Richard. The plaintiff, who performed as a member of producer Sean 'Diddy' Combs girl group Danity Kane and later his band, Diddy - Dirty Money, claims that she was financially exploited by Combs and subjected to inhumane working conditions. Among other violations, Richard claims that Combs required group members to remain at his residences and studios, deprived them of adequate food and sleep and forced them to rehearse for 36 to 48 hours without breaks. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Katherine Polk Failla, is 1:24-cv-06848, Richard v. Combs et al.
Who Got The Work
Mathilda McGee-Tubb and Kevin M. McGinty of Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, as well as Jesse W. Belcher-Timme of Doherty, Wallace, Pillsbury & Murphy, have stepped in to defend Peter Pan Bus Lines in a pending consumer class action. The suit, filed Sept. 4 in Massachusetts District Court by Hackett Feinberg PC and KalielGold PLLC, accuses the defendant of charging undisclosed 'junk fees' on top of ticket prices during checkout. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Mark G. Mastroianni, is 3:24-cv-12277, Mulani et al v. Peter Pan Bus Lines, Inc.
Featured Firms
Law Offices of Gary Martin Hays & Associates, P.C.
(470) 294-1674
Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone
(857) 444-6468
Smith & Hassler
(713) 739-1250
