Update on the Ripple vs SEC Case as of June 14 2024
In the ongoing legal dispute between Ripple and the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Ripple has submitted a new argument challenging the SEC’s request for a hefty penalty related to Ripple’s institutional XRP sales. Ripple’s legal team filed a Notice of Supplemental Authority regarding the Consent Judgment in the SEC’s case against Terraform Labs, as revealed in a recent court document shared by defense attorney and former federal prosecutor, James K. Filan, in a post on June 13.
The argument highlights that the proposed consent order requires Terraform to pay a significant amount in disgorgement and civil penalties, which represents a small percentage of their gross sales. This raises questions about the proportionality of the penalties sought by the SEC in comparison to similar cases where civil penalties ranged from 0.6% to 1.8% of the defendant’s gross revenues.
Ripple’s legal team argues that the civil penalty sought by the SEC in the case against Ripple far exceeds the range seen in other cases, especially considering that there are no allegations of fraud and Institutional Buyers did not incur substantial losses. They assert that an appropriate civil penalty for Ripple would be significantly lower than what the SEC is requesting.
In a separate case, the SEC recently obtained approval for a final consent judgment in its case against Terraform Labs, where the company and its former CEO were found liable for orchestrating massive securities fraud schemes. Following the verdict, Terraform Labs announced that it would be shutting down its operations.
Meanwhile, XRP, the cryptocurrency central to the Ripple v. SEC legal battle, was trading at $0.48 at the time of writing, with fluctuations in its price over the day, week, and month. It is important to note that the information provided in this article should not be considered investment advice as investing in cryptocurrencies carries risks.
