A popular attorney who tracks and analyzes the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) lawsuit with Ripple says that the top regulator has made an unexpected decision in their suit.
The SEC sued Ripple in late 2020 under allegations that the payments firm sold XRP as an unregistered security.
Attorney Jeremy Hogan says that he couldn’t be more surprised by the SEC’s decision to end its discovery process, which is the point in a lawsuit where both parties exchange information otherwise not known or readily available.
“Almost NOTHING would have surprised me more than this.
And yes, this is a very good thing. The only remaining areas of delay are the appeal regarding the Hinman emails and in general, just scheduling.
SEC discovery is complete, and that’s a big step forward.”
The Hinman emails that Hogan’s referring to involve documents relating to former SEC Director William Hinman, who Ripple alleges had a conflict of interest during his involvement in the beginning stages of the lawsuit.
Hinman also made a speech in 2018 in which he stated Ethereum (ETH) was not a security.
At the same time, the SEC has requested more time to file its objection against Judge Sarah Netburn’s decision to overrule the regulator’s request to negate Hinmnan’s speech as evidence.
Hogan says the move unveils the SEC’s strategy to delay at all costs.
“The SEC is 100% in the ‘Hurt Locker’ now, and the only relief is to delay, delay, delay.
Which it sure is trying, with absolutely no shame.”
In addition, Hogan says that the SEC is weakening its stance by changing its tune regarding Hinman’s speech.
The regulator had previously argued that Himan’s speech was his personal opinion. Now, Hogan says the SEC is switching up its position.
“If the SEC can’t even get it straight whether the speech was his personal opinion or perhaps the entire division’s guidance and they can’t even get it straight in a legal pleading with lots of forethought put into it, how the heck was Ripple supposed to know?”
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