The SEC-Ripple saga remains hung in the middle as both parties strive vigorously to conquer the lawsuit, which seems to have a historical significance as far as the US crypto community is concerned.
Ripple’s deposition motion and SEC resistance to it:
In the latest course of events, Ripple is seeking to depose the former SEC corporate finance director William Hinman. In response of which SEC had told the court that the agency’s former director has no such first-hand relevant information that could affect the lawsuit. Nevertheless, due to Hinman’s high-rank status, the defendant also bears the burden of coming up with evidence that the former director does have relevant information with regard to the lawsuit. Further arguing against the motion, SEC told the court that they “intends to quash”, the defendant’s motion.
Ripple’s Response to SEC’s counter-motion:
Not taking even half a step back, Ripple responded to the motion with some firm conviction as it firstly denied the SEC’s proposition that Hinman was a high-rank officer at SEC. Further, Ripple asserted that because Hinman is no more agency’s employee, he is not entitled to the special discovery protection, and the firm does not have an obligation to provide evidence that Hinman does have first-hand information regarding the lawsuit.
Relevance of Hinman’s controversial speech:
One of the most strong arguments that have been put forward by Ripple to depose Hinman is his speech in which he had stated that the “ether is not security”. Ripple took it as an argument and has long been contending that in what manner does SEC distinguishes Ripple from Ether. In relation to that Ripple stated:
“His testimony is likely to yield important facts shedding light on whether and to what extent the SEC authorized or approved it as a statement to the public about the agency’s current thinking on a complex, highly scrutinized regulatory topic.”
Indeed interesting are the lawsuit’s proceedings, recently, attorney Jeremy Hogan also commented on the information that is coming out of the lawsuit as he labeled it as “juicy”.