The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) seems to be demanding a whopping $2 billion judgment against Ripple Labs from a New York judge on Monday in supposed social media posts by Ripple’s CEO and chief legal officer. The regulatory body’s motion for a verdict with related penalties lodged on Friday is still subject to an unsigned protective order from outside parties.
Stuart Alderoty, Ripple Labs’ chief legal counsel claims that the documents will be made available for public vetting as redactions on 26th March, Tuesday.
SEC to ask for $2B fine, says CEO
The verdict would mark the end of this phase in the multi-year legal tirade between Ripple Labs and the SEC that started in December 2020. Back in the day, the SEC filed a lawsuit against the company and its officers accusing them of violation of the US federal securities laws selling XRP to both institutional and retail clients.
Upon filing, the action prompted the trading suspension of XRP or its removal from the exchanges operating in the US. However, last year, a federal judge ruled that Ripple was in violation of federal securities laws when it directly sold XRP to institutional investors but not while selling XRP to retail investors by exchanges.
While Brad Garlinghouse, the CEO of Ripple Labs according to his social media post on X (formerly Twitter), stated that the company would fight against the judgment motion.
“The SEC plans to ask the Judge for $2B in a case that involved no allegations (let alone findings) of fraud or recklessness,” Garlinghouse wrote. “There is absolutely no precedent for this. We will continue to expose the SEC for what they are when we respond to this.”
As for the SEC’s motion, Alderoty wrote that the company would respond next month saying, “As we all have seen time and time again, this is a regulator that trades in statements that are false, mischaracterized and designed to mislead … Rather than faithfully apply the law, the SEC remains bent on wanting to punish and intimidate Ripple – and the industry at large. We trust the Court will approach the remedies phase fairly.”
Other ongoing lawsuits
Formed as a SEC complaint in December of 2020, the lawsuit against Ripple, Garlinghouse, and the company’s co -founder Chris Larsen, asserted that the firm raised $1.3 billion in unregistered securities by selling XRP tokens. In July 2023, Judge Analisa Torres determined that XRP was not a security as of programmatic sales on digital asset exchanges.
The ruling has probably been one of the factors that led to SEC dropping the charges against Garlinghouse and Larsen in October 2023 with prejudice. The watchdog is currently engaged in civil lawsuits with crypto companies such as Coinbase, Binance, and Kraken.
