Jeremy Hogan, a top cryptocurrency lawyer and partner at Hogan & Hogan law firm has provided an interesting update on the case as the XRP community awaits the final judgment in the continuing legal struggle between the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Ripple.
Today, attorney Hogan tweeted that Judge Analisa Torres had ruled in a case involving the US SEC and Rio Tinto, a major mining company operating around the world. The pro-crypto counsel claimed that Judge Torres had ruled against the SEC on a relevant issue:
I was just reminded of a case in which Judge Torres ruled against the SEC on a key issue, the SEC appealed, and the appellate court upheld Judge Torres.
— Jeremy Hogan (@attorneyjeremy1) May 3, 2023
SEC v. Rio Tinto.
Just don't ask how long the whole process took. pic.twitter.com/4EPoU4mnhx
After Judge Torres ruled against the SEC, the SEC filed an appeal hoping for a new decision. However, the appellate court upheld Judge Torres’s decision, according to attorney Hogan.
Hogan included a printout of the relevant section of an essay published by Morrison Foerster in 2022. The report stated that Judge Torres ruled that scheme responsibility does not arise when the only foundation for such claims is an allegation of misrepresentation or omission.
Significantly, the fact that Judge Torres has previously ruled against the SEC has given Ripple’s investors hope. Ripple is hopeful that the judge who ruled in their favor previously will do so again in this case. Crypto enthusiasts have been keeping an eye on this case because of the potential impact it could have on the cryptocurrency business, particularly in the United States.
In December 2020, the SEC filed a complaint against Ripple Labs, saying that the sale of XRP, its native digital asset, constituted an unregistered securities offering. Since then, Ripple has been defending itself in court against the case, contending that XRP is not a security but rather a digital asset and that the agency’s actions have severely damaged the XRP market.
Since the collapse and bankruptcy of FTX in 2022, the world’s second-largest crypto exchange, the SEC in the United States, has been increasing its regulatory scrutiny over crypto and crypto-related firms.
