Ripple gains access to Binance’s filings in the proceedings against the SEC. The documents could provide crucial evidence that CEO Brad Garlinghouse acted outside the jurisdiction of the SEC.
The legal battle between the fintech company Ripple and the US regulator Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) took another dramatic turn this week. US magistrate Sarah Netburn granted Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse’s motion for “international disclosure” of Binance records. Previously, the legal team representing Garlinghouse had requested documents from Binance Holdings Limited that were “relevant to the case and not obtainable in any other way.”
Binance Holdings Limited is a Cayman Islands-based subsidiary of the major cryptocurrency exchange, Binance. Filing a disclosure request with a foreign company is a smart move by Ripple CEO Garlinghouse. The recordings should prove XRP transactions carried out by him. He wants to provide evidence that these transactions took place outside the jurisdiction of the SEC.
As a reminder, as part of the trial against Ripple, the SEC claims the company sold tokens valued at $ 1.3 billion and not adequately labeled as security. In addition, private XRP sales by Garlinghouse amounting to 357 million tokens are up for discussion. The filing now cites US State Department laws and even the Hague Convention. The court was asked to issue a request to the Cayman Island Central Authority to obtain evidence from Binance. According to the Application gave Judge Netburn this request.
Ripple recently achieved a similar partial success
Ripple’s attorneys argue that the Securities Act consulted by the SEC only applies to domestic sales and securities offerings. However, Garlinghouse’s XRP sales were “mostly on digital asset trading platforms outside of the United States.” Therefore, they did not fall under the law that the SEC relies on in this case.
In June, Garlinghouse and his former partner Brad Larsen filed a similar proposal. In it, they asked international authorities to sift through documents from several other crypto exchanges based outside the United States. These include Bitstamp, Huobi and Upbit.
Recently there had already been another favorable decision on the part of Judge Netburn. The aim was to summon a former SEC official as a witness. At the time, it explicitly did not designate Ethereum as a security. Ripple is trying to apply this assessment to its XRP token as well. Ripple also argues that the SEC cannot regulate XRP as a security because it is a medium of exchange that is used for international and domestic transactions.