The long running legal tussle between the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Ripple sees another intense round of court fillings. In the latest filings, Ripple called for a civil penalty of no more than $10 million. This is a sharp contrast to the commission’s proposal. The defendants earlier opposed the SEC’s recommendation to impose a nearly $2 billion fine on the company.
Ripple makes a new proposal
Ripple in court stated that “The Court should deny the SEC’s requests for an injunction, for disgorgement, and pre-judgment interest, and should impose a civil penalty of no more than $10 million.” However, the SEC’s proposal looks for $876 million in disgorgement, $198 million in prejudgment interest, and an additional $876 million in civil penalty. All of these fines totals out to be $1.95 billion.
Stuart Alderoty, Chief Legal Officer of Ripple, informed that their opposition to the SEC’s request for $2 billion in penalties for legacy institutional sales is now public. He highlighted in a case that had no allegations (or findings) of recklessness or fraud, and in which Ripple won on significant issues, the commission’s ask is just more evidence of its ongoing intimidation against all of the crypto in the US.
He added that the team remains confident that the Judge might approach this final remedies phase fairly.
Brad Garlinghouse, CEO at Ripple, in a post stated that it feels apropos that we file our response on the same day that 2 SEC lawyers “resign” for their (mis)conduct in the Debt Box case. He added that the US will be picking up the pieces of the commission’s disastrous policies long after SEC chair Gensler is gone.
What happened in XRP Case?
As we take a deep look at the court filings, it turns out that Ripple had argued that no gains from its institutional XRP sales to disgorge. It detailed redacted figures on its revenue, taxes paid, and losses.
This legal battle that emerged from the SEC stems from accusations that Ripple raised $1.3 billion by selling XRP. The commission considers it as an unregistered security.
Last year, Judge Analisa Torres ruled that certain sales of XRP by the defendants did not violate securities laws. It was due to a blind bid process but found direct sales to institutional investors as securities.
XRP price trajectory had suffered a lot due to these legal challenges. However, XRP jumped by more than 2% in the last 24 hours. It is trading at an average price of $0.54, at the press time.