finbold.com
The cryptocurrency community has finally witnessed the end of the long-running courtroom standoff in which the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sued Ripple over the issuance and selling of XRP – with the SEC retreating from the case.
Specifically, the SEC has agreed to dismiss the civil allegations against the blockchain company’s CEO, Brad Garlinghouse, and co-founder Chris Larsen, according to the court documents shared by a former federal prosecutor and popular commentator on the case, James K. Filan, in an X post on October 19.
#XRPCommunity #SECGov v. #Ripple #XRP BREAKING: CASE DISMISSED AGAINST BRAD GARLINGHOUSE AND CHRIS LARSEN pic.twitter.com/BYTe9152jM
— James K. Filan 🇺🇸🇮🇪 (@FilanLaw) October 19, 2023
SEC’s capitulation
Commenting on the development, Garlighouse pointed out that this was his company’s third victory against the regulator, arguing that the SEC targeted him and Larsen in a “ruthless attempt to personally ruin us and the company so many have worked hard to build over a decade.” As he added:
“The SEC repeatedly kept its eye off the ball while secretly meeting with the likes of SBF – failing again and again to protect US consumers & businesses. How many millions of taxpayer $ were wasted?! Feels good to finally be vindicated.”
As Ripple’s chief legal officer Stuart Alderoty stressed, “the SEC made a serious mistake going after Brad & Chris personally – and now they’ve capitulated, dismissing all charges against our executives. This is not a settlement. This is a surrender by the SEC.” Resharing Alderoty’s post, Larsen also had a comment about the SEC withdrawing from the case:
The last 3 years we’ve seen a rogue administrative state that needs to be held accountable for its actions – not just an investigation into the conflicts of interests that led to these baseless claims, but how the US actively demolished its global standing as the home for… https://t.co/TyMcnFU3mP
— Chris Larsen (@chrislarsensf) October 19, 2023
It is also worth noting that lawyer Jeremy Hogan explained that the recent turn of events makes “a full settlement much more likely as the only legal question left is how big a check Ripple writes to the SEC,” adding that being sued was not fun for Garlinghouse and Larsen, as “it keeps you up at night” and is “always in the back of your mind.”
What the case was about
As a reminder, the SEC had filed a case against Ripple and its two most prominent figures back in December 2020, seeking a fine of more than $2 billion for what it claimed was securities sales, referring to every sale of XRP that Ripple made for eight years anywhere in the world.
Furthermore, legal expert Bill Morgan, who closely watched the progress of the lawsuit, highlighted:
“It seemed to argue at times that the token itself was or represented a security. It sought an injunction to stop any future sale of XRP by Ripple. If it had succeeded, it would have ruined Ripple and deeply adversely affected the livelihood and lives of Brad and Chris.”
In reaction to the positive news, the price of the XRP token that has been at the center of the ongoing lawsuit soared to $0.512887, which represents an increase of 7.31% in the last 24 hours, as well as a 6.98% across the previous seven days albeit still holding onto the minor loss of 0.37% on its monthly chart, according to the information on October 20.
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