Key Takeaways
- SEC had requested a judge to impose fines totaling $2 billion against Ripple as part of filing under seal until March 26th.
- Ripple’s chief legal officer indicated that the company intends to submit an answer in April
According to reports, the SEC is said to have claimed $2 billion in fines and penalties as it continues its case against Ripple Labs over the sale of XRP cryptocurrency. This was disclosed by Stuart Alderoty, Ripple’s chief legal officer, in a social media post on Monday.
In a tweet on March 25, Alderoty said that the SEC had requested a judge to impose these fines and penalties totaling $2 billion against Ripple as part of filing under seal until March 26th. The civil action by the SEC has been going on since it was filed last year 2020.
Alderoty noted that the actions taken by the SEC appear to be punishment and intimidation for not faithfully applying them. He expressed his confidence on their progress through this phase where remedies will be sought from court.
Ripple’s chief legal officer indicated that the company intends to submit an answer in April following the request made by SEC. It criticized the regulator for providing false and misleading information stating that they are busy trading disinformation.
Ripple’s CEO Brad Garlinghouse defied the SEC’s proposed penalties claiming that there has never been such a large fine without a charge of fraud or negligence, urging him to fight further against SEC crimes.
The argument between Ripple and SEC traces back to December 2020 when this lawsuit was brought about by SEC. It alleged that Ripple together with its CEO Brad Garlinghouse and Chris Larsen who is one of its founders unlawfully raised $1.3 billion through unregistered securities sales of XRP tokens.
However, last year’s case ended with a very small victory for the SEC as Ripple was found guilty of selling XRP directly to institutional investors while violating security laws but it was ruled out the judge that XRP sales in public exchanges could not be considered securities.
The dropping off of its remaining claims against Garlinghouse and Larsen in October 2023 does nothing to minimize the degree of difficulty and importance contained within this lawsuit in terms of cryptocurrencies.
