The lawsuit by the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s against crypto payment company Ripple is taking much longer than expected.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission filed a lawsuit against Ripple in December 2020, alleging that Ripple has raised more than $1.3 billion in ongoing unregistered securities offerings by selling XRP.
Attorney Jeremy Hogan, who closely followed the case, predicted that the company denied the SEC’s allegations and hopes to be resolved as soon as possible, but if there is no settlement, the case may continue until early 2022.
The court postponed the deadline for determining key facts to October 15 earlier this week. But this is far from being the only obstacle.
A close commentator on the case, attorney James Filan has compiled the key dates for all delay cases.
XRPCommunity #SEC_NEWS v. #Ripple #XRP Updated events, graphics courtesy of @stedas pic.twitter.com/Kp4UHAxnHX
— James K. Filan (@FilanLaw) June 18, 2021
Using Filan’s excellent work this is what is about to happen
This case would have hit a big milestone. In March, the judge forced the Securities and Exchange Commission to disclose its internal emails and documents regarding Bitcoin, Ethereum, and XRP before June 18, but on June 14, the court approved the SEC’s motion to postpone the deadline for another two months.
This means, aside from one set of emails: a exchanges from its public education service, Education and Investor Advocacy Office, which tries to help people “invest wisely and avoid fraud.”
Ripple believes that these emails will indicate whether the SEC is biased against major cryptocurrencies and also to see if SEC has brought this burden to the lawsuit. At the time of writing, these emails have not been made public.
The judge has not yet ruled whether the SEC must disclose its internal business policies regarding cryptocurrencies.
From July 2nd, the SEC must generate e-mail communications and internal documents related to Bitcoin, Ethereum and XRP from its main FinHub mailbox (“intra-agency memoranda or formal position papers”).
Last week, the SEC said it had collected 25,000 emails and was still reviewing “tens of thousands” of internal documents.
Earlier on June 14, the judge extended the deadline for fact discovery to August 31. This is the deadline by which the SEC and Ripple must perfect their arguments and marshal evidence.
The deadline was originally set for July 2, so both parties have more time, although Ripple’s lawyers initially opposed the extension request, saying that “this litigation constitutes “an existential threat to its business.”
On the same June 14th earlier stated, the judge also extended the expert discovery period to October 15th. Experts find that evidence needs to be collected, well, experts in their field. On October 15th, both parties will also learn what the experts said to each other.
