Politico, a Virginia-based American newspaper that deals primarily with politics, reported that Facebook, the social media giant, added Susan Zook of Mason Street Consulting to its team of lobbyists working on the legislation of the Libra cryptocurrency.
Zook is a former aide to Senator Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), the Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee who also held the famous hearing on Libra last month.
Pressure on Senate Republicans
The news arrives a few weeks after the Senate Banking Committee held a hearing on the controversial Facebook Libra cryptocurrency in which several questions were raised on privacy, data protection and anti-money laundering issues.
David Marcus, the main manager of the Facebook blockchain project, attended the hearing in person. The report added that Zook would be working with the aim of lobbying Senate Republicans.
In June, Facebook also reportedly hired Edward Bowles, a former lobbyist for Standard Chartered’s senior banks, to work on public and regulatory issues related to the project.
Facebook and Libra: more than 7.5 million spent on lobbying activities
According to the Politico report, this year Facebook has spent more than 7.5 million dollars on lobbying alone.
In addition to hiring internal lobbyists, the company would be working with more than a dozen third-party lobbying companies to work on the Libra issue, including the Sternhell Group and the Cypress Group.
Facebook presented the long-awaited Libra project in June with the intention of launching a cryptocurrency as a payment instrument in all global jurisdictions. Since then, several financial regulators have raised regulatory concerns and are trying to put a stop to Mark Zuckerberg’s ambitious project.
