In a series of tweets, John E. Deaton, Founder, Crypto-Law.us, reviews the ongoing SEC-Ripple showdown.
He states that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigated Ripple, Brad Garlinghouse (CEO, Ripple), David “Joel Katz” Schwartz (CTO, Ripple), and Chris Larsen (Co-Founder & Executive Chairman, Ripple) for 30 months.
In doing so, dozens of subpoenas were issued to Ripple partners or investors operating their business in the United States.
Sharing his Ripple-SEC analyses, John Deaton tweeted:
Let’s review an important thing I call FACTS.
— John E Deaton (@JohnEDeaton1) December 26, 2022
Over a dozen investigators from the @SECGov investigated @Ripple @bgarlinghouse @JoelKatz and @chrislarsensf for 30 months issuing dozens of subpoenas to every Ripple partner or investor that was doing business in the United States. https://t.co/ysLDIeK6Zw
Following an exhaustive investigation spanning over two and a half years, an enforcement action was filed by the SEC against Ripple, its Chairman, and CEO. The SEC had access to all the XRP transactions effected by Ripple or its executives starting 2012, per Deaton.
The contracts signed by Ripple and its seed investors, such as Tetragon, were also in the SEC’s access. Still, Deaton says, the SEC didn’t get satisfied with the 30-month investigation’s outcome, striving for more. So, the SEC ventured to the international waters even amid its alleged “underfunded” resources.
Bypassing the Rules of Civil Procedure and the Hague Convention, the SEC leveraged MOUs with foreign regulators, beyond the U.S.
These foreign regulators were then requested by the “underfunded” SEC to burden the companies by serving on them tedious document requests.
But in its subsequent objection, Ripple claimed that the MOU requests should ideally have been initiated prior to the suit. By not doing so, the SEC acted unreasonably against Ripple’s partners and investors.
Ripple’s objection in question was overruled by the Judge, allowing the SEC to collect in-depth documentation against Ripple.
Barlinghouse argues that even prior to the culmination of the Ripple vs. SEC case, Ripple would have spent over $100M in legal fees in its defense.
In other news, Palau has reportedly partnered with Ripple to launch a national stablecoin. Palau is also planning to issue NFT ID cards to its digital residents.
