John Deaton, the attorney representing more than 70,000 XRP token holders in a class action case against the SEC, argues that it is unreasonable to penalize those who “have no notion who Brad Garlinghouse is” ten years after Ripple’s ICO.
Deaton has been representing XRP investors who incurred considerable losses when the SEC compelled US-based exchanges to delist XRP after Ripple was targeted.
Deaton said in an interview with Fox News last week that the SEC should “go after Ripple” if it can establish a case. However, he emphasized that it is unreasonable to pursue traders 10 years after they acquired XRP, referring to them as “collateral damage” and “roadkill” in the interview.
Based on the SEC’s citation of the Howey decision, Deaton argues that the underlying asset – in this instance, XRP tokens – is not referred to as securities. This word refers to the sales and service contract, as well as the scheme itself.
Deaton said that in the 76 years after the Howey decision, there has never been an SEC case in which the buyer and seller had no privity.
During the Fox interview, Deaton also questioned SEC head Gary Gensler’s motivations for determining who he would really speak with.
“These are the individuals Gary Gensler promised to defend. Instead of communicating with us and reaching out to us, he filed a petition to remove our standing in court and to have me personally thrown out of court,” said Deaton.
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