Judge Denies SEC's Motion to Shield Hinman Documents in Ripple Case

Another Win For Ripple
SEC's Long Battle With Ripple

U.S. District Court Judge Sarah Netburn denied the SEC's motion in its case against Ripple to protect William Hinman speech-related documents under the attorney-client privilege. Hinman is the former director of the SEC's Division of Corporation Finance.

Another Win For Ripple

"Magistrate judge Netburn denies the SEC's attorney-client privilege claims. The predominant purpose of the communications was not to provide legal advice. The documents must be produced."

Hinman had said in a June 2018 speech that Ethereum cannot be considered as securities. In light of this, Ripple wants to cross-examine Hinman about the reasoning behind his perspective about Ethereum at the time and then try to apply that same rationale to XRP. This way the deposition could lend itself to Ripple's argument that the XRP token is not a security.

SEC's Long Battle With Ripple

In December 2020, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) agency accused Ripple Labs, Christian Larsen, Ripple co-founder, and Bradley Garlinghouse, Ripple CEO, of privately selling XRP, which according to them is security.

SEC quotes the sales of XRP to be illegal and wants the firm to surrender the $1.3 billion fund raised in the token sales. Along with that, the regulatory agency wants to ban all the three above-mentioned participants from further selling tokens in the crypto world.

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Ripple SEC William Hinman Judge Sarah Netburn Ripple Case SEC Ripple U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)

Judge Denies SEC's Motion to Shield Hinman Documents in Ripple Case

Jafrin Ahmed

Jafrin is a cryptocurrency journalist/researcher fascinated by the world of decentralization. She is hopeful towards blockchain’s innovation and its potential to reshape the world for good. Currently, she is bringing out the best of cryptosphere via covering the latest ins and outs of the blockchain space.