In the lawsuit against Ripple, the United States Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) demanded that various information and documents be sealed.
Ripple sees important evidence at risk
Already on December 22 Both parties have submitted all relevant documents to the court. However, the SEC added one to the record Request to seal certain documents zu: Accordingly, the tax administration is asking the court, among other things, to keep the relevant documents on the “Hinman speech” under lock and key.
The Hinman documents primarily relate to a speech by former SEC Corporation Treasury Secretary William Hinman. In this June 2018 speech, the executive explained that Ethereum (ETH) is not a security. Ripple sees the speech as important evidence of the inconsistent and unregulated classification of crypto assets by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. And the crypto-Twitter also speculates on why the information should be kept under lock and key.
Following a ruling by Judge Torres, the SEC released the Hinman documents to Ripple Labs in late October after months of litigation. Now the U.S. IRS argues the documents have ‘no relevance’ to the judge’s decision in summary judgment. Therefore, the court should redact all references to the documents. In addition, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission has requested the closure of internal documents and testimony from SEC experts and XRP investors.
From Jeremy Hogan, Ripple Community Advocate commented on the request as follows:
“The SEC STILL maintains that Hinman’s emails are privileged, although they’ve already lost this discussion about 100 times. It amazes me. AND makes me curious to know what’s written there.
The legal dispute is of great importance for the crypto sector
In December 2020, the SEC filed a lawsuit against Ripple Labs. She claimed that the company’s cryptocurrency, XRP, is a security because the company used it to raise capital in 2013. The case is a relatively rare example of an SEC lawsuit brought. before the courts and may result in a precedent-setting decision rather than a settlement.
Ripple’s CEO Brad Garlinghouse sees this accusation an “attack on the entire American crypto and innovation industry”.
As reported recently, there are growing indications that the process will soon come to an end. Among other things, crypto attorney Jeremy Hogan predicted in a YouTube video on December 10 that 110.6% of the results would be forthcoming. Since Ripple Labs has never entered into a contract with XRP investors, Hogan sees no legal obligation for the company towards the backers. Nonetheless, he estimates that the odds of winning for the crypto company are around 50%..
Whether judges will see the SEC’s latest request as a sign of uncertainty remains to be seen. But we may be curious to see what lies ahead in the court case in 2023. The reaction of XRP price in particular should be of great interest to investors. If you want to discuss this topic or other breaking news, please join our Telegram group here.
Disclaimer
All information contained on our website has been researched to the best of our knowledge and belief. Journalistic contributions are for general information purposes only. Any action taken by the reader based on information found on our website is entirely at their own risk.