The SEC vs. The Ripple case continues as Ripple requests a court to deny SEC’s request to get 1 million employee messages. The US Securities and Exchange Commission asked Ripple to provide Slack messages related to the XRP, which Ripple thinks is costly and won’t end any disputes.
Ripple’s defense attorney stated that the SEC is making an extraordinary demand in his letter. The attorney commented that the SEC is calling for a costly and extensive fishing expedition that can take months to complete and that too at high costs. The US Securities and Exchange Commission’s disproportionate request is unreasonably replicative of Ripple’s production of 1 million sheets of discovery. The pages included emails, text messages, Slack messages of 33 custodians, and documents. The custodians are individuals the SEC deem relevant to the case.
It started back in December 2020 after the SEC filed a case against Ripple Labs, stating that XRP was an unregistered security. As a result, the 1.4 billion dollars worth of operations faced severe losses and lost over 50% of its value. The Commission also called for Ripple’s executive chairman and CEO as co-defendants for allegedly abetting and aiding Ripple’s violations.
Crypto companies and investors around the globe are closely following the case as it can reshape the entire industry. The SEC recently asked the court to force Ripple Labs to share its employee interaction on Slack in a quick turn of events. The SEC suggested that a huge chunk of data is missing due to Ripple’s refusal and data error. The Commission has also denied Ripple’s negotiation offer, providing Slack messages from additional nine custodians.
Jorge Tenreiro, the SEC’s attorney, stated that the relatively few documents related to Slack offered by Ripple show the importance of the missing documents. The messages of the custodians clearly show discussion related to the disputes at the case’s heart.
This is the latest spat between the SEC and Ripple, which comes as the deadline for discovery approaches. The fact-finding and expert-finding phases should be finished by Aug. 31 and Oct. 15, respectively.
