SEC Drops Claims Against Ripple Executives

Blockchain firm Ripple scored another victory in its 3-year-old battle with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The SEC plans to dismiss its claims that Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse and Executive Chairman Chris Larsen aided and abetted the company’s alleged securities law violations, according to a Thursday (Oct. 19) court filing.

The SEC filed suit against Ripple and its executives in 2020, accusing the company of conducting a $1.3 billion unregistered securities offering tied to its XRP token.

That case is ongoing, with the filing indicating that the SEC and Ripple intend to meet to discuss what “remedies are proper against Ripple.” Still, the decision by the SEC marks the latest in a series of victories for Ripple in this case.

“Ripple: 3, SEC: 0,” Garlighouse posted Thursday on X, formerly known as Twitter, before adding: “In all seriousness, Chris and I (in a case involving no claims of fraud or misrepresentations) were targeted by the SEC in a ruthless attempt to personally ruin us and the company so many have worked hard to build for over a decade.”

“The SEC repeatedly kept its eye off the ball while secretly meeting with the likes of SBF — failing again and again to protect U.S. consumers and businesses,” he continued in an apparent reference to FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried. “How many millions of taxpayer [dollars] were wasted?! Feels good to finally be vindicated.”

Today was an even better day.
Ripple: 3
SEC: 0

In all seriousness, Chris and I (in a case involving no claims of fraud or misrepresentations) were targeted by the SEC in a ruthless attempt to personally ruin us and the company so many have worked hard to build for over a… https://t.co/YsQxewFnj9

— Brad Garlinghouse (@bgarlinghouse) October 19, 2023

Ripple scored an earlier win in July when Judge Analisa Torres ruled that the company had not broken securities laws when it made XRP available to retail investors.

Earlier this month, Torres denied the SEC’s appeal of her ruling, the second of the three victories to which Garlinghouse alluded.

As PYMNTS wrote in July, it’s a ruling that has “far-ranging repercussions across the digital asset ecosystem, which has long argued that its tokens do not represent securities contracts.”

Still, the “cryptocurrency ecosystem itself has been racking up more high-profile losses than it has wins,” at least as of late, PYMNTS reported Oct. 9.

For example, the British Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has undertaken a crackdown on crypto companies that violate new standards around fraud and scams.

For all PYMNTS crypto coverage, subscribe to the daily Crypto Newsletter.