A new and striking development in the Ripple lawsuit. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has decided to discovery-phase to complete. According to attorney Jeremy Hogan, this is “a big step forward.”
Ripple lawsuit enters next phase
Documents show that the SEC no longer needs time for discovery, which is the stage in a US lawsuit where documents and information are collected and exchanged between the parties. This is in preparation for the further lawsuit.
In a tweet Hogan writes that the move by the SEC takes him quite by surprise. Thus he writes:
“Almost NOTHING would have surprised me more than this. And yes, this is a very good thing. The only remaining areas where the case could be delayed are recourse to Hinman’s emails and generally just scheduling. The SEC’s discovery is complete and that is a big step forward.”
Hinman’s Statements Harmful to XRP Lawsuit?
It remains unclear how long the lawsuit could take. Of great importance are the statements of former SEC director William Hinman. He would have stated in a speech that bitcoin (BTC) in ethereum (ETH) are no effects. However, the SEC argues that this was not the SEC’s line and was purely Hinman’s own personal beliefs.
The supervisor came back to this later. It tried to keep information about these rulings out of court, but Judge Sarah Netburn has this request has since been rejected† Added to this is the fact that Hinman allegedly violated SEC recommendations and there is evidence of conflicts of interest.
The Ripple lawsuit was filed by the SEC, the financial regulator in the United States. The regulator believes that XRP are securities, or investment contracts. Ripple would not have the appropriate licenses for this, so the SEC wants the company and its founders to pay hefty fines and cease its activities in the US. Read here 3 possible outcomes of the XRP lawsuit.
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