The SEC is banned from viewing certain documents related to the lawsuit against Ripple. This was decided by the responsible district court in New York.
Partial success for Ripple. In litigation with the SEC, Judge Sarah Netburn rejects the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC had wanted to see confidential documents from Ripple in the responsible district court, which are related to the case. The judge forbade this with reference to the lack of “relevance” of the documents. Specifically, it should be about documents from legal advice by Chris Giancarlo, which Ripple had previously obtained. According to the SEC, Giancarlo, ex-chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), had been paid by Ripple to publicly advertise a discontinuation of the proceedings against the company. The SEC wanted to see the related documents – but is not allowed to do so.
But that’s not all for the SEC: According to Judge Netburn, it is also inadmissible to request documents that come from the time after the start of the trial.
The SEC’s motion to compel filing of post-filing documents will be filed […] declined,
it says in that Court document.
With these adversities, it is likely to become increasingly difficult to gather sufficient evidence.
However, the SEC does not go completely empty. The start of the process was postponed again, so that the authority now has another two months to substantiate its allegations against Ripple. The court also admits a total of five other witnesses: Christian G., Ron W., Ethan B., Phil R. and Ryan Z. – all of them former Ripple employees
XRP: security or not?
The legal dispute between the crypto company Ripple and the Securities and Exchange Commission has been smoldering since December 2020. The reason for the lawsuit, which is being heard in the US District Court in New York, are allegations that Ripple’s cryptocurrency XRP is a so-called security. So the question arises as to whether Ripple sold XRP securities under the US Securities Act without having previously properly registered them as such with the SEC.
The outcome of the legal dispute is completely open at this point. Because recently judge Netburn decided in favor of the plaintiff. As reported by BTC-ECHO, the New York District Court dismissed a complaint from Ripple that the SEC illegally collected evidence abroad. The SEC should have formally notified these steps to Ripple, the company said. However, it will be a while before the parties to the dispute testify in court. After all, as things stand now, the SEC has until October 15, 2021 to take evidence.