cryptovibes.com
The recent development in the ongoing case between Ripple Labs and the US Securities and Exchange Commission is that Ripple’s motion to obtain access to the crypto trading records of SEC employees has been denied.
The motion filed by Ripple sought to gain access to these trading documents to prove that despite the SEC classifying XRP as a security, its employees were still trading the asset as a cryptocurrency. If this motion were granted, it would weaken the SEC’s case against the global remittance firm.
Federal Judge Denies Motion
Judge Sarah Netburn of the New York District Court gave several reasons as to why she denied Ripple’s motion to access these records. “Defendants have not shown that such individual trading decisions bear on the issues in this case,” she stated.
The judge further added that giving Ripple access to these documents to access the SEC’s policies on trading decisions would likely trigger litigation cases if there is proven to be fair notice and recklessness.
Furthermore, Judge Netburn stated that providing access to these documents would be in violation of the privacy of the commission’s employees, given that Ripple did not present a strong case as to how these documents could aid the company in its defense.
Ripple’s Battle with the SEC
Developments in Ripple’s case with the SEC have put the crypto community on the edge, with many waiting to see the outcome. Prior to this ruling, Ripple had filed another case to compel the SEC to provide details of its cryptocurrency trading policies.
In its response to this motion, the SEC stated that the commission id did not have any policy in place related to crypto trading at the time of filing the lawsuit against Ripple in December 2021.
However, Ripple stated that legal representatives of the SEC had stated in an earlier meeting that the commission had barred its employees from trading XRP after a 2019 order.
On the other hand, the SEC won a similar motion against Ripple when it requested for 1 million slack messages of its employees. The Judge granted this order, which will cost Ripple around $1 million to recover this data.