SEC Drops Claims Against Ripple Executives in Landmark Lawsuit

Recently, SEC filed a motion in the New York court to drop their assertions of the wrongdoings of Ripple Labs’ executives in the continuing case. SEC filed a civil action against Ripple in its December 2020 law suit and alleged that the company had illegally raised more than USD1.35 Billion by issuing unregistered security in an ICO using the XRP.

The U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres gave Ripple a partial win in July when she ruled that the sale of XRP on public exchanges was not an unregistered securities offering. But the Judge agreed with the SEC too that in selling large amount of xrp to savvy buyers the company contravened the law.

A new filing in Court reveals that the SEC is dropping charges of aid and abet against Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple, and Chris Larsen, the company’s co-founder, in connection with XRP sales.

Garlinghouse and Larsen’s comments on the SEC are that it seeks politics not law to suppress the growth of crypto currency’s innovation in America.

However, the SEC asserted that the issue has not been closed, and each party would seek judgment from the court on the most appropriate penalty for Ripple.

The incident bears close monitoring in the crypto circles, as tougher regulation ensues. Chairman Gensler at SEC is aggressively taking actions against the big guys like Binance and Coinbase, claiming that most digital assets fall under regulation through SEC.

The decision by SEC to dismiss its allegations against the Ripple executives introduces another exciting dimension to a case with wider implications on the regulatory framework of the crypto-currency market. It will continue to be an issue as the legal battle rages on and the question of whether digital assets are considered securities in the US is still being addressed. More information regarding this issue will follow soon.