- Two lawyers from the law firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP have declared their intentions to represent Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse in the ongoing case.
- Brad Garlinghouse and co-founder Chris Larsen are expected to go on trial in Q2 2024 in response to their respective charges.
Ripple Labs (XRP) recently got a partial victory in the case against the US Securities and Exchange Commission, sending the XRP price to $0.93. A few weeks after the ruling, the SEC, in a letter dated August 9, asked the Judge to put the case on hold while they appeal. According to them, several other pending court cases could be affected by the outcome of the appeal. SEC currently has legal cases with several crypto firms including Binance and Coinbase.
The Programmatic Sales ruling could have significant persuasive value in various pending SEC enforcement actions where issuers offered and sold crypto assets indiscriminately to public investors over crypto asset trading platforms, including cases pending in this district…Interlocutory review is warranted here. These two issues involve controlling questions of law on which there is substantial ground for differences of opinion as reflected by an intra-district split that has already developed.
SEC also drew the attention of the court to the recent judge’s decision in the suit against Terraform Labs. According to the judge, cryptos sold on exchanges could be securities as well. Judge Analisa Torres has, in response to this, approved the request from SEC to file a motion for leave to file an interlocutory appeal in the case.
Two Lawyers to Represent Ripple CEO in the Case
According to the latest update, two renowned lawyers from the law firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP recently indicated their intentions to represent Ripple’s Brad Garlinghouse in the case. According to the report, Attorney Caleb J. Robertson made a formal request to the court to obtain all relevant legal documents and communications that relate to the case. Similarly, Michael A. Schulman has filed a motion to appear “Pro Hac Vice” on behalf of the Ripple CEO.
Caleb J. Robertson would reportedly be a good addition to the legal team considering his background as a crypto advocate. He has also been actively involved in several government investigations within the crypto ecosystem. He also represents securities trading firms, financial institutions, public companies, and investment managers on regulatory-related issues.
The original allegation against Brad Garlinghouse and co-founder of Ripple Chris Larsen is that they manipulated customers’ funds through the sales of XRP which is classified as unregistered securities. Their case would reportedly go on trial in the second quarter of 2024 in the Southern District of New York. According to reports, both parties are expected to submit blackout dates to the court in two weeks. Also, they are supposed to submit pretrial filings, document exhibits, and motions by December 4, 2023, to exclude evidence from the jury.
Several concerns have also been made that the summary judgment of the Ripple vs. SEC case does not set a precedent for other tokens and issuers.
XRP is currently trading at $0.518456 and has made marginal gains to reduce its weekly fall to negative 13 percent as of press time. The price has surged by 0.23 percent in the last 24 hours with a safety score of 64/100.
