In a strategic move, Ripple has recently appointed two attorneys on behalf of Ripple’s CEO before the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. To represent the case strongly Ripple needed someone experienced against U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) motion to seek permission for an interlocutory appeal in the ongoing case.
Will New Attorney Change The SEC Game Plan?
In the recent filing, Attorney Caleb J. Robertson of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP will officially represent Brad Garlinghouse, the CEO of Ripple, in the lawsuit against the SEC vs Ripple. The filing made a formal request to the court to furnish all relevant legal documents and communications pertaining to the lawsuit. The firm added another attorney to the case, Michael A. Schulman has also submitted a motion to appear “Pro Hac Vice” on behalf of Garlinghouse in the SEC case.
Ripple isn’t in the mood to take any chances, and Caleb J. Robertson is an experienced cryptocurrency advocate. He has previously dealt with various government investigations within the cryptocurrency platform space.
In addition to this, Robertson’s legal practice extends to representing financial institutions, securities trading firms, investment managers, and public companies on issues related to regulatory matters. This makes him the right candidate to give valid arguments on SEC’s changing stance on “Securities”. Since they have the upper hand in the case, as XRP is no longer a Security.
Will Ripple Lead the Case with the Summery Judgement?
It is worth noting that, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse got involved in the XRP lawsuit since it is linked to allegations made by the U.S. SEC. He has heavily criticized SEC in the past for misleading and changing their stance in the case making it more complicated for the entire crypto assets. Not only that the firm has also filed another complaint on December 22, 2020.
The accusation states that Garlinghouse, alongside Christian Larsen, who is a co-founder of Ripple, has manipulated the customer funds by selling XRP tokens, which the SEC classified as “unregistered securities.” The question arises how can the SEC challenge or accuse someone of selling “Unsecured Securities” if they do not know what securities they are dealing with??
Ripple is accused of collecting funds by selling XRP tokens without proper registration since 2013, including to global and U.S. investors.
However, going by Judge Analisa Torres’ recent ruling was a game-changer. She said there wasn’t proof of selling unregistered securities, especially automated token sales to regular buyers. This was seen as a big win for the cryptocurrency market, possibly influencing similar cases.
