SEC will reportedly seek $2B in case against Ripple, CEO says
The filing is under seal until Tuesday, March 25
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse | World Economic Forum/Valeriano Di Domenico/”World Economic Forum Annual Meeting” (CC license)
The Securities and Exchange Commission is seeking $2 billion from Ripple Labs in fines and penalties, Ripple’s chief legal officer said on Monday.
Stuart Alderoty, in a post on X, said that the company will respond to the SEC’s proposal next month.
“Our response will be filed next month, but as we all have seen time and again, this is a regulator that trades in statements that are false, mischaracterized and designed to mislead. They stayed true to form here,” he wrote.
The SEC, Alderoty continued, is “bent on wanting to punish and intimidate Ripple — and the industry at large.”
Read more: Ripple ordered to turn over financial statements by judge
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, on X, said that the $2 billion sought by the SEC is unprecedented because the case “involved no allegations (let alone findings) of fraud and recklessness.”
“We will continue to expose the SEC for what they are when we respond to this,” he added.
Garlinghouse accused the SEC of acting “outside the law,” and cited DEBT Box. The agency was dealt a blow last week after the judge overseeing the case sanctioned the regulatory agency.
Judge Robert Shelby, the Utah judge overseeing the DEBT Box case, accused the SEC of “bad faith conduct” and abusing its power.
Read more: DEBT Box loss shows SEC ‘overreach and failure,’ Hill says
A spokesperson for the SEC declined to comment on the filing, which isn’t yet public. The court documents will not be publicly available until Tuesday, according to Alderoty and Garlinghouse.
The SEC and Ripple continue to engage in a multi-year legal battle. In July of last year, Judge Analisa Torres issued a summary judgment. The judgment determined that while the programmatic sales of Ripple’s XRP token did not qualify as unregistered securities transactions, the institutional sales could be categorized as such.
The ruling was a blow to the SEC’s argument which claimed that Ripple knowingly violated securities laws.
Last year, the SEC said it would not be pursuing a trial against Garlinghouse and Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen.
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