The unending litigation between the fintech firm, Ripple, and the US regulatory watchdog continues to take different directions. One of the most elaborate struggles involved William Hinman’s 2018 speech. There was a talk on crypto securities by the former Director of the SEC’s Corporate Finance Division.
Are you asking if this is a statement of the official’s views or actual agency guidance? Note that Ripple Labs is committed to solving this issue with the latest filing.
give reasons
#XRPCommunity #SECGov v #fluctuation #XRP Surge Defendants Files Response to SEC Attorney Client Privilege Claims regarding Hinman Speech and Notes https://t.co/iI3OGv3yW4
— James K. Filan 🇺🇸🇮🇪96k+ (beware of scammers) (@FilanLaw) May 13, 2022
On May 13, Ripple Defendants responded to the SEC Attorney and the Securities and Exchange Commission’s April 29, 2022 claim. Allegedly, the SEC refused to file in court or Defendant, citing negotiation process privilege. [DPP] and attorney-client privilege.
James Filan, a famous lawyer, drew attention to this development in the tweet in question. Defendant insisted that the SEC should be compelled to turn over the documents. Afterwards, important reasons were discussed in the said filing.
Addressing Judge Sarah Netburn, the Ripple defense team wrote that the SEC allegations were false for the following reasons. “The records in this case show that Mr. Hinman made his speech in a personal capacity.”
However, the Defendant argued that Hinman, who has the right to obtain legal opinions from his colleagues about his personal opinion, would not be included in the attorney-client relationship. The correspondence in question did not contain any confidential information about the organization.
In the filing, he added that even if the SEC could create elements of attorney-client privilege to secure the documents, the agency would designate a privileged claim that it had no right to assert because the privilege would belong to Hinman.
“If the court finds an attorney-client relationship to comment on a draft of a speech given between Mr Hinman and SEC staff in his personal capacity.
The defendants request the court to examine the remaining documents in front of the camera and determine whether they contain legal advice or privileged confidential information.”
The SEC will now present its response on May 18, 2022.
#XRPCommunity #SECGov v. #fluctuation #XRP By Text Only Magistrate Netburn agreed to the SEC’s request to file a response briefing in connection with the attorney-client privilege claims regarding the Hinman speech documents. The SEC’s response is due by May 18, 2022.
— James K. Filan 🇺🇸🇮🇪96k+ (beware of scammers) (@FilanLaw) May 4, 2022
It is strange
Overall, the SEC has consistently fought to protect Hinman’s documents for a variety of reasons, including the Negotiation Process Privilege (DPP) basis. Despite the court’s refusal, the SEC sought a new reason to protect the agency from handing over Hinman’s documents to Ripple.
Needless to say, Ripple and its team must be running out of patience. The XRP community felt the same as per the comments. But there is an interesting reaction here. Attorney Jeremy Hogan, a partner at the Hogan & Hogan law firm, found it strange that Hinman sought legal advice from the SEC’s attorney for his personal opinion.
Solomon also makes a veteran move in responding to the SEC, arguing that ONLY Hinman has the privilege to escalate (not the SEC).
It is good legal practice to reduce an issue to a basic premise – is this the appropriate party to challenge?
Hence, King Solomon. pic.twitter.com/NyqXdlx81E
— Jeremy Hogan (@attorneyjeremy1) 14 May 2022
Did it help the local token in any way? Yes and no. On May 13, XRP rose 9.81%. However, at press time, XRP suffered a fresh 9% decline as it traded around $0.4 according to CoinMarketCap.