After much confusion and speculation, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed an appeal in its ongoing legal dispute with Ripple Labs.
The appeal challenges parts of Judge Analisa Torres’ 2023 summary judgment, which found that Ripple’s sales of its XRP token to retail investors on crypto exchanges did not violate US securities laws.
Ripple execs target SEC appeal
While many observers had expected the SEC to dispute the court’s ruling that programmatic sales of XRP did not meet the legal criteria for an investment contract, the agency chose to focus on other crucial aspects of the decision of judge Torres.
One of the areas addressed in the appeal is the court’s determination that Ripple’s XRP offers and sales on crypto platforms, as well as the personal dealings of the company’s executives, including Brad Garlinghouse and Chris Larsen, they did not violate securities laws.
The regulator also objects to the decision that found no violation of securities laws occurred when the crypto payments company distributed XRP in exchange for non-cash considerations.
In the same ruling, Ripple’s institutional sales of XRP were held to be against securities laws. The company was forced to pay a fine of 125 million dollars for this violation.
The SEC had filed a notice of appeal on Oct. 2 and by law had 14 days to file Forms C and D. The forms were expected to provide more information about what exact parts of the judge Torres’ decision would be the agency. contestant
The late filing causes controversy
When the expected deadline came and went, seemingly without any action from the regulator, it led to widespread speculation in the community, with many wondering if he had deliberately jeopardized his long-running case against the crypto company.
Some experts had suggested that failure to file the necessary documents on time could result in the appeal being dismissed, possibly ending the SEC’s quest to overturn Judge Torres’ findings.
The apparent omission was all the more surprising given the agency’s reputation for punctuality and the massive interest in the Ripple case.
Adding to the intrigue, when it was finally filed, the SEC Form C was dated October 16, while the court docket stamp on the document read October 17, further raising the ‘speculation that the agency may have missed its deadline. However, Fox reporter Eleanor Terrett suggested that the notice of appeal may have been filed on October 2, but it only appeared in the docket on October 4, meaning that the actual deadline was October 18 at 11:59 p.m.
Whatever the case, legal experts like MetaLawMan say the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals must now decide whether the SEC filing was made within the allotted time.
For its part, Ripple has seven days to respond to the filing, with its legal director Stuart Alderoty saying the company will do so next week.
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