SEC declines to disclose internal documents in Ripple case

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed an objection to the court’s demand to disclose internal documents in the Ripple case.

#XRPCommunity #SECGov v. #Ripple #XRP The SEC has filed its Reply Brief in Further Support of its Objection to Magistrate Judge Netburn’s Orders Compelling the SEC to produce the Hinman Speech Materials.https://t.co/CgwzCzmIkF

— James K. Filan 🇺🇸🇮🇪 109k (beware of imposters) (@FilanLaw) August 16, 2022

This concerns the text of former SEC Director of the Division of Corporate Finance William Hinman’s 2018 speech. He stated at the time that, for various reasons, Bitcoin and Ethereum are not securities.

The SEC argued that the former official’s remarks reflected his personal views. In February the Commission filed a motion, according to which Hinman expressed the position of the Division of Corporate Finance. In this way the agency sought to extend the reach of the DPP to the draft remarks.

On July 12, 2022, Judge Sarah Netburn described the regulator’s position as hypocritical and rejected the motion to withhold disclosure of internal documents.

On August 16, the Commission accused Ripple’s lawyers of using a “fundamentally inconsistent argument”. In its response to the court’s ruling, the SEC stated that Hinman’s speech is not related to the case.

According to the document, the speech drafts are internal documents not subject to disclosure. The regulator also stressed that information relating to the deliberative process falls under the DPP.

The speech by the former SEC employee was again described as “preliminary” and “deliberative”, because it “reflects the author’s personal views”, not the agency’s policy. As in the previous motion, the regulator cited attorney-client privilege.

Earlier, Fox Business aired a major investigation into the SEC’s case against Ripple. Journalists concluded that the officials behind the filing could be affiliated with Ethereum.

Empower Oversight, a nonprofit organization, pointed to a potential conflict of interest in the actions of former high-ranking SEC officials.

In May, SEC representatives could not confirm or deny the authenticity of a video of Hinman’s remarks at the Fintech Week 2018 conference. He said at the time that Ethereum deals were not “securities transactions”.

Read ForkLog’s bitcoin news in our Telegram — cryptocurrency news, prices and analytics.