Ripple pursues documents from 15 offshore exchanges it says might be ‘fatal’ to the SEC’s charges

By Clark

Ripple trusts records held by offshore exchanges will show its executives did not violate Section 5 of the Securities Act by offloading XRP on the U.S. public.

Brad Garlinghouse Ripple CEO & Chris Larsen co-founder, have marched a motion demanding the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission investigate Bitfinex’s parent company, iFinex, & 14 other international crypto exchanges.

The June 2 motion needs documents from exchanges including Bitlish, BitMart, AscendEX iFinex, Bitforex, Bithumb,  Bitrue Singapore,  Huobi Global, Bitstamp, Coinbene, HitBTC Korbit, OKEx, Upbit Singapore, & ZB Network Technology

The motion’s secondary memorandum notes the letters of appeal solicit assistance from authorities in the Cayman Islands, Hong Kong, the United Kingdom, Singapore, South Korea Seychelles, & Malta.

The SEC’s amended complaint contrary to Ripple accuses Garlinghouse & Larsen of selling more than 2 billion units of XRP to “public investors” situated “all over the world,” with the SEC looking for disgorgement from Ripple’s executives founded on the sales.

Ripple’s executives deny the SEC’s claims they violated Section 5 of the 1933 Securities Act, highlighting that Section 5 exactly prohibits the domestic sale of securities without a registration statement. Garlinghouse & Larsen’s legal sign counter that their XRP sales were conducted on foreign exchanges & thus outside of the SEC’s jurisdiction:

‘In the situation of transactions conducted on such foreign trading stages, both the proposals of XRP & the sales of XRP happened on the books & records of the own platforms, & therefore geographically outside the U.S. The SEC’s disappointment to allege domestic proposals & sales should be fatal to its claims.’

Ripple asserts the exchanges & connected entities subject to its novel motion “possess sole documents & information” concerning Ripple’s legal battle with the SEC, exactly concerning “the procedure by which transactions in XRP supposedly led by the Individual Defendants on foreign digital asset trading stages were led.”

 

The SEC edited its complaint against Ripple & the firm’s executives in Feb. alleging their sales of XRP repressed the crypto asset’s price. The complaint also blames Garlinghouse & Larsen of deceptive public investors while divesting billions of dollars’ value of XRP as Garlinghouse recurrently claimed he was “very long” on XRP during the time of the alleged sales.

The filing comes just days after an important blow was dealt to the SEC’s case in contradiction of Fipple, with the court refusing the SEC’s bid to admission communications between Ripple & its lawful counsel.