Ripple scores 'a very big win' in SEC case
Ripple Labs has struck a blow against the Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) case after the presiding judge made a ruling that one Ripple community lawyer calls “a very big win for Ripple.”
The SEC filed suit in 2020 against Ripple and executives Brad Garlinghouse and Christian Larsen for selling unregistered securities.
Presiding Judge Sarah Netburn denied the SEC’s request to reconsider shielding documents under privilege related to a June, 2018 speech made by Ripple’s then-director Willian Hinman. In the speech, Hinman said Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) are not securities.
The SEC previously did not object to those documents falling outside deliberative process privilege (DPP) protection, as it suggested they concerned only Hinman’s personal views, not Ripple policies.
The DPP exempts some documents in a case from being disclosed by the government so it can confidentially review existing policy based on the materials of the documents.
The SEC subsequently changed tack to argue the speech reflected Ripple’s policies rather than Hinman’s personal views and should be shielded.
Judge Netburn said the SEC should not contradict itself in trying to flip-flop on its assertions. In her decision, she wrote
In summing up the critical aspects of Judge Netburn’s rejection to reconsider, a Ripple community defense lawyer with an extensive case file of financial and SEC cases James K. Filan tweeted today:
This is a very big win for Ripple.
Another Ripple community lawyer and founder of Crypto-Law.us also tweeted today to his 191,000 followers that “The SEC is now in a hurt locker” following Judge Netburn’s ruling.
This is not just a win for @Ripple and #XRPHolders, but for the judicial system. After the March 2021 hearing, I said
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