Reddit, Robinhood and Citadel CEOs to testify at GameStop hearing next week
13 February 2021
Executives at the center of the GameStop trading saga — including from Reddit and Robinhood, plus hedge funds Melvin Capital and Citadel — will testify before Congress next week, the House Financial Services committee announced on Friday.
Why it matters: The virtual hearing is the first since the fallout of the Reddit stock trading frenzy that pushed stocks like GameStop and AMC Entertainment to record highs — and the first time some of these executives will speak publicly about it.
Who's testifying:
- Vlad Tenev, Robinhood CEO
- Steve Huffman, Reddit CEO
- Ken Griffin, Citadel CEO (and owner of Citadel Securities, the market-maker that operates separately from the hedge fund)
- Gabe Plotkin, Melvin Capital Management CEO
- Keith Gill, r/wallStreetBets investor (better known as "Roaring Kitty" or "DeepF---kingValue")
Worth noting: The committee said "additional witnesses may be announced."
The bottom line: The trading mania has fizzled, but it still has the attention of Congress and regulators.
What's next: The hearing — titled “Game Stopped? Who Wins and Loses When Short Sellers, Social Media, and Retail Investors Collide” — is scheduled for next Thursday, starting at 12 pm E.T.
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.