Gensler’s SEC Phone Wiped, Nearly a Year of Texts Gone

Gary Gensler’s SEC Phone Wiped, Nearly a Year of Texts Gone

Written by Aaron S.,

Editor-In-Chief

Last Updated: September 05, 2025

Key Takeaways

Nearly a year of former SEC Chair Gary Gensler’s text messages were lost after his work phone was mistakenly wiped;
A new auto-wipe policy deleted the phone’s data after it remained inactive for 45 days;
A failed recovery attempt in September erased all remaining data, including past messages.

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An internal review has revealed that nearly a year's worth of text messages from former Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler were deleted.

The Office of the Inspector General, which acts as an independent reviewer for the SEC, explained on September 3 that the messages were lost due to a combination of technical problems, overlooked warnings, and a misapplied policy.

The issue began on July 6, 2023, when Gensler’s work phone stopped linking properly with the SEC’s device management system. While the phone was still working and in use, its status was shown as "inactive" to the IT team, an alert that went unnoticed.

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On August 10, 2023, the agency’s tech department announced that any phone not connected to the system for 45 days would be automatically wiped. Gensler’s phone met that condition and was cleared without any manual checks.

Then, on September 6, 2023, Gensler returned to the SEC offices and saw that certain apps were missing. Unaware that the phone had already been wiped, the support team tried to fix the issue.

However, instead of restoring the content, they reset the phone entirely, which erased any remaining data, including text messages from October 18, 2022, to September 6, 2023.

The report pointed to several other issues that contributed to the loss, including a lack of communication between IT teams and external service providers.

Meanwhile, SEC Chair Paul Atkins recently shared his views on how the agency plans to handle digital assets going forward. What did he say? Read the full story.