Ripple’s Chief Legal Officer (CLO), Stuart Alderoty, says the payments company is taking action following a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) last month.
In a Motion for Remedies and Entry of Final Judgment filed on March 25, the SEC asked the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York to order Ripple to pay $876,308,712 in disgorgement, $198,150,940 in prejudgment interest, and $876,308,712 in civil penalties, totaling approximately $1.95 billion.
The motion concerns a lawsuit that the SEC initially filed against Ripple in late 2020. The securities regulator accused the San Francisco-based company of selling the XRP crypto asset as an unregistered security.
While U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres ruled that the automated, open-market sale of XRP did not constitute a securities offering, she concluded that the institutional sale of the token violated securities law.
According to the SEC, Ripple has committed securities law violations for years, amounting to nearly $1 billion.
“Courts in this district routinely impose injunctive relief, disgorgement, prejudgment interest, and fines against defendants who violate the securities laws.
The Court should do so here, given its finding that Ripple illegally raised hundreds of millions of dollars by engaging in unregistered offers and sales of securities over many years.
In a after on social media platform X, Alderoty says Ripple will respond to the regulator’s motion within a week.
“I see some confusion about the next steps in the SEC vs. Ripple case. To clarify, Ripple will respond to the SEC’s request for fines by April 22, and the SEC has until May 6 to respond.
Alderoty also corrects misinformation about a final pretrial conference on April 16, as the SEC had already decided not to pursue claims against Ripple’s CEO Brad Garlinghouse and Executive Chairman Chris Larsen.
“There will be no final pretrial conference because the SEC dismissed the charges against Brad Garlinghouse and Chris Larsen.”
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