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#Gamestophearing: Congress puts Robinhood CEO in hot seat, Internet trolls Citadel CEO Ken Griffin's response

The Gamestop hearing held on February 18 saw the CEO of Robinhood app, Citadel CEO Kenneth Griffin and an investor known as Roaring Kitty face questions from lawmakers on the House Financial Services Committee

A virtual hearing titled 'Game Stopped? Who Wins and Loses When Short Sellers, Social Media, and Retail Investors Collide' was conducted on February 18 which saw Robinhood's CEO Vlad Tenev, Citadel CEO Ken Griffin, Melvin Capital CEO Gabriel Plotkin, Reddit co-founder Steve Huffman and Keith Gill, a trader who goes by the name Roaring Kitty, appear as witnesses who testified in front of Congress.

Tenev explained at that hearing that he did not handle the surge in Gamestop's price too well and added that he did not, "favor hedge funds over customers during the unprecedented surge in GameStop stock." He added "First, Robinhood securities put the restrictions in place in an effort to meet increased regulatory deposit requirements, not to help hedge funds. We don’t answer to hedge funds. We serve the millions of small investors who use our platform every day to invest.” The Council has been convened to find out exactly what happened and House Financial Services Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters said that mounting a legislative response will take a while.

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Tenev also apologized and said, "I'm not going to say Robinhood did everything perfect and we didn't make mistakes in the past." At the hearing, the many things that Tenev was asked included questions regarding if he was pressurized by "anyone present" to halt trading in Gamestop stocks and how much of Robinhood's revenue came from selling workflow. There was also a moment when Representative Sean Casten placed a call to Robinhood's helpline just to prove that the app is not as user-friendly as it wanted the public to believe.

Tenev was also questioned about the death of 20-year-old Alex Kearns who had believed that he had lost $750,000 in a risky move. To this Tenev responded, "It was a tragedy, and we went into immediate action to make sure that we made not just the most accessible options-trading product for our customers, but the safest as well."

However, what really caught the internet's attention was Citadel CEO Kenneth Griffin's testimony which many believed was read from a teleprompter. One user shared, "Citadel's Ken Griffin's reading is egregiously bad...Maybe he should've hired someone with the brilliant idea of, I don't know, putting the teleprompter in line with the camera lens...or you know, hired someone to teach him how to read while on camera."

Another user wrote, "SNL needs to make some major fun of Ken Griffin reading his sh**ty teleprompter like a scared kitten following the owner's laser pointer. #GameStopHearing." Another shared, "Kenneth Griffin, come fight me, I’m bout that, big truss. End of the lane way don’t come up the property. You got my stolen data and know where we live. #GameStopHearing #Citadel." One user also wrote, "Ken Griffin's lawyer doesn't know how to type fast enough to keep up with his reading. #GameStop #GameStopHearing #gamestophearings $GME."

Griffin had a tough time responding to Representative Brad Sherman who asked, "I'm asking you a clear question ... Who gets the better deal — one [trade] that comes from a broker who is being paid for order flow, and one not? Can you testify that, on balance, there's no difference, assuming the same size of the order?"