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Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Adam Schiff (D-CA) are demanding the removal of members of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) while claiming without evidence that Elon Musk plans on “enriching himself and supercharging his new digital payment platform, at the expense of American taxpayers, through DOGE’s illegal efforts to dismantle the CFPB.”

In a letter to CFPB Acting Director Russ Vought and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, the senators noted the recently announced partnership between Musk’s social media platform X and Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) to process peer-to-peer (P2P) payments and launch a digital wallet – which they asserted creates a conflict interest between Musk and DOGE’s activities.

“Notably, the CFPB has taken steps in recent years to protect consumers from fraud on digital payment apps,” the senators continued. “As part of its efforts to protect consumers’ money, the CFPB recently issued a final rule allowing it to supervise and examine large digital wallet providers. In other words: through his efforts at DOGE to target the CFPB, Mr. Musk is actively undermining an agency directly responsible for supervising—and if necessary, disciplining—his company’s new P2P system.”

Warren and Schiff added that Musk was “also potentially gaining access to confidential corporate data that could provide X with an unfair advantage over its competitors” in the digital wallet sector, asserting that due to his “incursion into the CFPB, Mr. Musk and DOGE employees now have access to a trove of proprietary corporate information that he would not have been able to obtain otherwise.”

The senators also stated another company run by Musk, the electric vehicle maker Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA), creates another conflict of interest because “CFPB plays a critical role in supervising the auto lending industry and protecting consumers from corporate malfeasance and scams.”  Therefore, actions by Mr. Musk and DOGE at the CFPB also have the potential to directly benefit Tesla—and by extension, Mr. Musk.”

Musk did not immediately comment on the senators’ assertions and demands.

Photo: Thomas Hawk / Flickr Creative Commons