25 October 2023
Pro-XRP legal expert Fred Rispoli has shared some expectations following Judge Analisa Torres’ order, where she officially dismissed the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) claims against Ripple’s executives Brad Garlinghouse and Chris Larsen.
SEC Can Still Bring Claims Against Ripple’s Executives
In a post shared on his X (formerly Twitter) platform, Rispoli noted that the SEC could still file another lawsuit against Garlinghouse and Larsen if they were to appeal Judge Torres’ ruling on the programmatic sales and other distributions and get a judgment in their favor.
His assumption is based on the fact that the Judge’s latest order showed that the SEC only dismissed the claims against them with respect to the institutional sales, as the Commission had alleged that both Garlinghouse and Larsen aided and abetted Ripple Labs in violating securities laws with respect to the crypto company’s offers and sales of XRP.
However, he stated that any action would only be restricted to the programmatic sales and other distributions since the dismissal with respect to the institutional sales was with prejudice, meaning a claim cannot be brought again regarding that particular matter.
In July, Judge Torres also ruled that the institutional sales were investment contracts, which amounted to them being securities. In line with this, the SEC and Ripple will move to settle on the latter’s violation of securities laws, with the firm expected to pay a particular amount as a fine for its violation of the act.
Will The SEC Appeal Judge’s XRP Decision?
As to whether the SEC will appeal Judge Torres’ ruling on the programmatic sales and other distributions, Rispoli seemed to suggest that that was unlikely as the SEC was more focused on crunching the numbers (probably the monies Ripple will pay as fine) and “wrap this one up for good.”
In a subsequent post, he also mentioned that there was the possibility that they received assurances from the SEC to not file an appeal as one would expect that Garlinghouse and Larsen’s “high-powered attorneys” would have asked that the SEC dismissed all the claims, including the ones relating to the programmatic sales and other distributions.
Interestingly, Rispoli had once predicted the likely outcome of this case as he had stated that the SEC was unlikely to drag Ripple’s executives through a trial and that they had only brought forward the claims against them in order to force Ripple into a “weak settlement position.”
The SEC is also unlikely to appeal, going by pro-XRP legal expert John Deaton’s comments when he suggested that the ETH Gate saga may have forced the SEC into what Ripple’s Chief Legal Officer Stuart Alderoty has described as a “surrender.”