The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) have received a major blow in there ongoing legal battle vs Ripple. Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn has granted Ripple’s appeal to serve subpoenas to SEC officials and authenticate videos of public statements made by officials of the regulator.
Ripple is now set to serve at least two subpoenas to at least seven Securities and Exchange Commission officials. The Judge presiding over the protracted legal battle – Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn, snubbed the SEC’s claim that Ripple were trying to reopen fact discovery.
The ongoing legal battle has showed no signs of slowing down anytime soon since the Securities and Exchange Commission slapped a lawsuit on Ripple back in December 2020. The SEC accused Ripple of trading up to $1.3 billion worth of their native token (XRP) as securities without the proper asset registration.
Things have however not been favourable for the SEC in this case as the details of Ripple’s latest win were revealed by renowned lawyer, James Filan. The agency had objected to Ripple’s request for the authentication of videos and set a condition that they would only agree to the request if Ripple would also consent to reopen discovery. The motive behind the SEC’s move was to serve several subpoenas that could give them power to obtain video evidence that could bolster their claims.
The SEC have responded to Magistrate Netburn’s ruling with a one-liner that said “Plaintiff respectfully takes no position on Defendants’ motion to reopen fact discovery to serve non-party subpoenas for the purpose of obtaining video recordings for authentication”. This response has irked many Ripple proponents including Filan who asserted that Ripple abused the judicial process by waiting up to five days just to file a one-sentence response that misconstrued Ripple’s original request.
The SEC has been at the receiving end of several defeats recently and the authentication of the statements made by the SEC’s officials will most likely strengthen Ripple’s case against the accusations the SEC has levelled against them. Despite the current volatility of the case, Ripple CEO, Brad Garlinghouse believes the case is in the endgame and a resolution should be found before the year ends.
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