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In the latest development in its ongoing lawsuit, Ripple has objected to the SEC’s request for post-complaint discovery.
James K. Filan, a former federal prosecutor who regularly posts updates on the Ripple SEC action, made it known in a new tweet that Ripple has filed its response opposing the SEC’s motion to compel.
According to the filing, the SEC seeks to compel Ripple to produce audited financial statements for the years 2022 and 2023; produce all post-complaint contracts for the sale or transfer of XRP to “non-employee counterparties”; and answer an interrogatory about the amount of “XRP institutional sales proceeds” received after the filing of the complaint for certain contracts.
Ripple opposes these requests, saying first that they are untimely. Ripple pointed out that the SEC had enough chance to seek most of the requested discovery while fact discovery was open but chose not to do so and now lacks good cause to do so.
In addition, the SEC’s discovery requests seek information that is irrelevant to remedies, Ripple said.
Ripple stated that the parties had already litigated whether post-complaint discovery was appropriate and that during that discovery dispute, the SEC never argued that post-complaint discovery was relevant to remedies, instead claiming that post-complaint conduct was completely irrelevant to the case. The motion was resolved after Ripple agreed. As a result, the SEC should not be allowed to reverse its cause.
Ripple pointed out the SEC’s “unreasonable” demands, stating that on Nov. 14, the SEC served nine interrogatories and three RFPs (requests for productions) on Ripple.
In December, Ripple objected to these requests on several grounds, including the fact that discovery was closed, except for the narrow discovery granted by the Court on Nov. 13. In addition to this, the SEC had exceeded the 25 interrogatories allowed under Rule 33, and certain of the requests related to post-complaint conduct were irrelevant.
Ripple also argues that adjudicating the legality of Ripple’s post-complaint sales might embroil the Court and parties in lengthy ancillary litigation.
Ripple’s stand-up to the SEC’s requests has attracted comments and praise from the XRP community. Meanwhile, the XRP community keeps their fingers crossed, expecting positivity in the hopes that the Ripple SEC lawsuit will see an ultimate conclusion this year, 2024.