u.today
Stuart Alderoty, chief legal officer at Ripple, has clarified there is no pretrial conference with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission scheduled for Apr. 16, countering some misinformation on social media.
The conference will not take place because Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse and co-founder Chris Larsen were cleared of all charges by the SEC, Alderoty explains. The two top executives were initially accused of aiding and abetting Ripple in its securities law violations.
The schedule item, which was shared by a popular member of the XRP community, is outdated since it was set before the charges were dropped in October.
According to Alderoty, Ripple is now expected to file its response to the SEC's request for penalties by Apr. 22. The regulator will have to reply to Ripple by May 6.
As reported by U.Today, the regulator is demanding more than $2 billion worth of fines and penalties from Ripple. In its motion, the SEC argued that such an enormous sum is justified due to the nature of Ripple's conduct. Moreover, large fines are expected to deter additional violations of the securities laws in the crypto industry.
Garlinghouse was quick to decry the SEC's request as regulatory overreach while Alderoty has accused the regulatory agency of trying to intimidate his company and the broader industry. Lee Hepner, senior legal counsel at the American Economic Liberties Project, opined that Ripple was in a precarious position.
Last year, the court ruled that XRP sales through secondary trading platforms did not fit the definition of securities transactions. However, some analysts believe that the SEC will aggressively try to overturn this ruling.