Attorney General Rokita leads multistate inquiry into financial company’s ties to Chinese Communist Party

Wednesday, April 17, 2024 at 8:07 AM

Attorney General Todd Rokita is leading a multistate inquiry into whether a Chinese-owned financial company — Webull Financial LLC — may have exposed clients’ personal information to the Chinese Communist Party

“Hoosiers and the rest of the American public deserve to know more about Webull’s ownership and connections to the CCP,” Attorney General Rokita said. “As Indiana’s Attorney General, I have pledged since Day One to hold China accountable, and we are making good on that commitment.”

On behalf of Hoosiers, Attorney General Rokita previously brought a complaint against Chinese-owned social media company TikTok for allegedly violating data privacy laws and deceiving app users into believing their information is protected when that data is subject to Chinese law and may be intercepted by the CCP.

On March 13, 2024, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which would ban TikTok from operating in the U.S. unless it separates from its Chinese owner, ByteDance. The Act is now working its way through the Senate.

“Webull’s data protection practices and representations also warrant serious scrutiny,” Attorney General Rokita said. “In fact, Webull appears to collect more personally identifiable information and sensitive financial data from U.S. customers than TikTok.”

The company is a U.S.-registered broker-dealer that allows customers to trade U.S. stocks, options, and certain cryptocurrencies. Webull is owned by Hunan Fumi Information Technology Co., a Chinese company, and it appears to conduct substantial operations for its U.S. business using personnel and resources located directly in the People’s Republic of China.

In a letter to Webull’s CEO, Attorney General Rokita and the other attorneys general request answers from the company to 11 questions in order to shed more light on its data protection practices on behalf of customers.