Court denies XRP holders’ bid to participate as defendants in Ripple v. SEC

On October 4, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York denied XRP holders’ motion to participate in the Ripple case as defendants. However, Judge Analisa Torres allowed them to participate as amici curiae.

🚨BREAKING: Judge Torres grants amici status to @JohnEDeaton1 and Movants, and Denies Motion to Intervene in @Ripple v. @SECGov

ADDED to our Document Library:
✅Text of the Order from Judge Torres 👇https://t.co/4YLiv5V0kL

— CryptoLaw (@CryptoLawUS) October 4, 2021

In Torres’s view, granting the defendants’ status ‘SEC will compel the SEC to take enforcement action’ against investors. This would also delay the proceedings, the order states.

“The court found that the amici status would strike an appropriate balance between allowing participants to advocate for their interests in this case and giving the parties the ability to control the course of the proceedings,” Judge Torres noted.

In March 2021, Deaton Law Firm founder John Deaton prepared a motion on behalf of 6,000 XRP holders to participate in the proceedings. In his view, investors’ interests were not adequately represented.

In the same month the court allowed them to file the relevant documents. In May, the Commission opposed XRP holders’ participation and called them ‘extremely biased’.

Earlier, Judge Sara Netburn denied Ripple’s motion regarding disclosure of information about the SEC employees’ transactions with Bitcoin, Ethereum and XRP. 

In September, Ripple agreed to hand over to the regulator internal audio and video recordings. The court also ordered the company to provide the Commission access to Slack messages from its employees. 

In October the regulator demanded Ripple provide meeting records in which CEO Brad Garlinghouse and co-founder Chris Larsen, as well as other senior employees, discussed topics related to the suit.

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