Another twist has been turned in the ongoing Ripple vs the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) legal tussle. The Magistrate Attorney in charge of the case, Judge Sarah Netburn has slammed the Securities and Exchange Commission, accusing them of hypocrisy and declining their custody request of the Hinman speech.
This legal decision is widely regarded as a grand slam in Ripple’s favor as it has put them in a pole position to make a favorable argument in the case.
The case began in 2020 when the SEC accused Ripple and two executives of offering unregistered cryptocurrency securities for public purchase and raising $1.2 Billion from those sales. Following the accusation, the SEC sued Ripple and the two executives, Brad Garlinghouse and Christian Larsen.
Ripple however consistently stuck by their word that its native token XRP was not in any way offered as a security. The case dragged on for some time because both parties were confident of winning the legal tussle. Ripple is using the infamous William Hinman speech to back their side of the case in court.
They cited a speech by William who was a former director of corporate finance to build their case. The SEC replied by trying to keep custody of the speech documents and not allow them to be used as evidence in court.
The Magistrate Attorney, Sarah has denied the custody request of the speech of the SEC’s former official, William Hinman. According to insider reports, the Hinman speech document contains some information that was made out to be William Hinman labeling Ethereum as a non-security.
This contradicts the SEC’s guidelines which classify XRP as a security. The Magistrate Judge has however put the legal tussle under wraps and requested for the documents to be made available for a review in camera.
However, the court concluded that the court session’s motive behind the overriding would not in any way aid public interest in light of the agency’s work. As a result, she ruled the SEC to produce those documents for the court’s review.
This ruling has renewed Ripple’s drive to tackle the Securities and Exchange Commission and end the prolonged legal battle.
Featured image source: finbold.com
