The SEC lawyers’ latest approach, according to Jeremy Hogan, a partner at the American law firm Hogan & Hogan, who has been closely watching and commenting on the SEC’s action against Ripple, appears to be a tremendous mistake.U.S. Lawyer on SEC vs Ripple Lawsuit
The SEC “Filed A Case Against Ripple Labs Inc.
The SEC “filed a case against Ripple Labs Inc. and two of its executives, who are also significant security holders, charging that they raised over $1.3 billion through an unregistered, ongoing digital asset securities offering,” as you may recall, on December 22, 2020.
The most recent development in this case occurred on February 17, when Ladan Stewart, Senior Trial Counsel at the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Enforcement, sent a letter to U.S.
Magistrate Judge Hon. Sarah Netburn of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.
This Is What Senior Trial Counsel At The Securities And Exchange Commission’s Division Of Enforcement, Had To Say.
Stewart wrote:
“This motion is limited to the Court’s ruling with respect to Entry 9 of Appendix A to Defendants’ motion to compel (D.E. 289), which includes a single, clean draft of a June 14, 2018 speech (‘Speech’) delivered by Bill Hinman.
Then-Director of the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance (‘Corp Fin’). After reviewing Entry 9, the Court found that ’emails concerning the [S]peech or draft versions are neither predecisional nor deliberative agency documents entitled to protection’
Under the deliberative process privilege (‘DPP’), and ordered the SEC to produce Entry 9 and other documents ‘previously withheld based on the privilege that would be inconsistent with this order.’…
“Reconsideration of this aspect of the Court’s decision is warranted because the Court based its decision on a single document relating to the Speech—one that Defendants chose to highlight for the Court—and did not consider the 67 other emails attaching drafts of the Speech that were before the Court on Defendants’ motion.
These additional documents—along with other matters available to the Court and described below—demonstrate that the Speech was not ‘merely peripheral to actual policy formation’ and was in fact an ‘essential link in the SEC’s deliberative process with respect to Ether.’…
“The Speech itself—and the many drafts and comments by SEC staff across different SEC divisions and offices deliberating the agency’s approach to the regulation of digital assets—show that Director Hinman.
Other SEC staff used the Speech to provide public guidance as to how Corp Fin would apply the federal securities laws to offers and sales of digital assets including Ether.
Indeed, SEC regulations provide that Director Hinman’s public statements could be relied upon as representing the views of Corp Fin, the division he led.“
According to a report by The Daily Hodl, in a YouTube video released on his firm’s YouTube channel “Legal Briefs”, Hogan explained why filing this motion was a bad idea:
“In litigation, you have to have your strategy, your theory of the case or the theory of the issue that you are arguing, and you have to stick with it.
In a DUI (driving under influence) defense case for example, your legal position may be that your guy had been drinking, but was not impaired.
If that is your position, you get your client straight on it, and you do not waiver. If he gets up on the stand, and says ‘Well, now that I think about it, I don’t think I drank that night,’ you are screwed…
“The entire argument completely backtracks on what the SEC has been saying for almost the last year. What does that mean for a legal strategy standpoint? Look at what the SEC has just done.
It’s not good, because it opens up the possibility that the SEC could lose both its pawn, and its bishop…
“The judge has already made a very strong determination that as far as she’s concerned, the speech was Hinman’s personal opinion…
Now, in this motion for reconsideration, it has given her more very similar documents to review and changed its position on the speech 180 degrees.“
Conclusion
Many in the audience of crypto industry leaders, just maligned as crooks, were stunned. Gensler repeatedly said that “platforms need to come in and get registered,” as if everyone knew what he was talking about.
Perianne Boring, the head of the Digital Chamber of Commerce tweeted, “People in the room are looking around and asking, “register as what?””
It’s a fair question given that the exchange Coinbase – the only crypto company to have gone public on the stock market – tried “going in”.
Upon sharing to share its lending platform information, the SEC slapped Coinbase with a subpoena and the threat of what Gensler affectionately calls “the enforcement tool.”
Also Visit: Coin Bureau on Polkadot: ‘DOT Could Become One of the Top Cryptos of 2022’
