Twenty-one lawyers are gearing up to fight the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s lawsuit against Ripple and two of its executives.
Four lawyers are representing Brad Garlinghouse, the company’s chief executive, four are representing co-founder Chris Larsen, and another 13 are working for the company itself, according to court documents.
The SEC alleges Ripple illegally sold XRP as an unregistered security upon its launch, and maintains that the digital asset is a security to this day.
On Tuesday, the commission announced Marc P. Berger, the acting director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, will depart this month.
Berger joined the agency in 2017 and was named the deputy director of the enforcement division in August.
In addition to Ripple, Berger took actions against Robinhood, Credit Suisse Securities, the New York Stock Exchange, JP Morgan Securities, Deutsche Bank AG, Herbalife Nutrition, Stryker Corp, General Electric, Hertz, and Telegram Group, among others.
Multiple news reports indicate President-elect Joe Biden is likely to pick Gary Gensler as the next chair of the SEC.
The former chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission has previously said there’s a strong case to be made that XRP does have the characteristics of a security.
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