According to defence attorney James K. Filan, a New York court authorized collaborative plans by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Ripple Labs that detailed timeframes for redactions and sealing concerns in impending summary judgments.
The action is deemed essential to bringing the lengthy case to a speedy conclusion. In December of 2020, the SEC filed a lawsuit against Ripple, the issuer of the namesake XRP cryptocurrency, for marketing unregistered securities.
Chris Larsen, the co-founder of Ripple, and Brad Garlinghouse, the company’s CEO, were also named as defendants in the case. The firm disputes that XRP is a security. U.S. authorities impose stringent regulations on securities.
The SEC filed a motion on September 9 requesting that parts of its papers including information regarding its planned expert witnesses remain confidential. Previously, it was suggested that such procedures may safeguard witnesses from harassment.
Ripple rejected the proposal, claiming that the case must stay completely open to the public. Both sides may have finally found common ground, tweeted defence attorney James K. Filan.
In a joint letter to the presiding U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres, the SEC and Ripple agreed to unseal sections of their respective court files, so making the case public. However, certain details will still need to be removed.
Debevoise and Plimpton, attorneys for the SEC, said that they requested Garlinghouse and Larsen’s permission to make all elements of the case public since the judgement would establish a precedent for how states handle digital securities.
Andrew Ceresne, a partner at Debevoise & Plimpton, wrote to the court, “The proposal would enable rapid, public access to the parties’ papers (any suggested redactions are anticipated to be small), which is considered to be consistent with the strong presumption of public access.”
The motion was granted by District Judge Analisa Torres, who set a deadline for both sides to present their reasons.
“Under the joint plan, the parties would also be compelled to provide public, redacted versions of all documents within 21 days after the court’s decision on the omnibus sealing requests,” Judge Torres said in a Sept. 12 opinion.
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