XRP lawsuit: A look at evidence against Ripple as survival of Fair Notice looms

This week, the SEC v. Ripple lawsuit saw Judge Analisa Torres back in the game by ruling mostly against a Ripple motion to seal exhibits. The move, however, was deemed as a “great sign” for XRP holders and the defendants.

Jeremy Hogan, one of the popular attorneys friendly with the XRP community, shared a video in which he analyzes the SEC’s evidence against Ripple and explains his excitement regarding the takeover by Magistrate Torres.

“The common law of public access to judicial documents is firmly rooted in our nation’s history. This presumption of access is based on the need for federal courts to have a measure of accountability and for the public to have confidence in the administration of justice”, the court argued in favor of public disclosure of the evidence against Ripple.

“Her order will let us see many of the documents that will take place on February 17 and we have access to three pieces of actual evidence that we can look at”, Jeremy Hogan commented, pointing that evidence 179-4 and 179-5 are very important for the SEC.

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As to 179-4, a couple of paragraphs could hurt the Ripple case as Brad Garlinghouse told employees about XRP holders’ expectations in regard to the price of XRP and Ripple’s power over the digital asset.

“Despite a proven track record of being good stewards of XRP, we had continued to hear concerns in the market that Ripple could (hypothetically) sell our 61 billion XRP at any time – a scenario that would certainly be bad for Ripple! So with the decision to lock up 55 billion XRP in escrow, we have given investors a predictable supply schedule and removed what skeptics have suggested has been a barrier to broader XRP adoption.”

Jeremy Hogan read the piece of evidence and found that Ripple does seem to put a lot of thought and effort into the XRP’s price and the use of the word ‘investors’ is unfortunate.

“It’s not all that bad for Ripple as it was sent only to Ripple employees and the issue was whether XRP purchasers expect Ripple to increase the price of XRP. XRP Holders back in 2017 never saw this email”, he added.

As to 179-5: In this document, Chris Larsen responds to an XRP holder about the impact of Ripple’s business expansion on the price of XRP. The SEC might want to use the evidence to support its claim that Ripple sold XRP as a security.

“The strategy of focusing on connecting banks serves both emerging trends – the more banks connect thru Ripple Connect and ILP, the more demand we should see for XRP as an asset to reduce liquidity costs.”

Jeremy Hogan read the piece of evidence and found that it is “simply a factual statement that the price of XRP will increase as more banks use Ripple products. There’s no promise of a price increase in this answer at all.”

“These will be the SEC’s evidence that XRP purchasers were relying on Ripple to increase XRP’s price. I just hope for the SEC that they have more and better evidence than these two documents”, Hogan said.

As to Judge Analisa Torres, now that she is back in business, Jeremy Hogan believes we’ll get a ruling on three dispositive motions very soon, including the long awaited and key ruling on whether the fair notice defense survives.