Ripple demands rebuttal of Gensler from crypto cases
The legal battle between Ripple Labs and the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) continues to await a decision after final briefs were submitted by both parties about a month ago. The latest development in the lawsuit was the intervention of Forbes journalist Dr. Roslyn Layton, who filed a motion to intervene to ask the court for access to the Hinman speech documents.
Still, Ripple’s chief legal officer (CLO) Stuart Alderoty has repeatedly pointed out the SEC’s misconduct in recent weeks. Two weeks ago, he wrote that SEC Chairman Gary Gensler is a political liability for failing to establish proper regulation for over 40 million Americans who own cryptocurrencies.
Ripple CLO calls for Gensler’s withdrawal
In his latest tweet, Alderoty draws attention to a gross misconduct by Gary Gensler that could yet be his undoing. The Ripple CLO write:
Crypto lawyer PSA: Chairman Gensler has again proclaimed that every cryptocurrency, except BTC, is an unregistered value. He must now recuse himself from voting in any enforcement case that raises this issue, since he has predetermined the outcome. Antoniu v. SEC (8th Cir. 1989).
Alderoty’s tweet alludes to an interview by Gensler in New York Magazine in which he stated that “anything but Bitcoin” is a security. In making this unequivocal and clear statement, however, Gensler may have erred, as Alderoty notes, citing Antoniu v. SEC.
In that case barred, the SEC charged a stockbroker from working with a firm for violating federal securities laws. The SEC initiated proceedings to permanently bar the stockbroker from all employment in the securities field.
However, an SEC commissioner made a monumental mistake, the court later ruled. While the proceedings were ongoing, the commissioner called the ban permanent.
The court found that the commissioner’s comments about the permanent ban on the employment of stockbrokers while the case was pending showed that the commissioner had prejudged the issue. The commissioner’s continued participation in the shutdown procedure violated due process.
With his recent statement, Gary Gensler has thus disqualified himself from participating in any vote on a crypto-related securities matter. As Alderoty explains, Gensler must now recuse himself from voting in any enforcement case since he has predicted the outcome.
The SEC faces another battleground
Meanwhile, the SEC also faces a new battleground to contend with an XRP community attorney. Fred Rispoli of Hodl Law sued the SEC two months ago, asking the court to declare that Ether and the Ethereum network are not securities.
Notably, the SEC has filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit. In its motion, the SEC does this wonderfully statement:
Hodl Law’s own claims make it clear that the SEC has not reached a final decision on the Ethereum network or Ether.
Once again, the SEC and Gensler contradict themselves. The first hearing day in the case is scheduled for 13 March.
At press time, XRP was trading at $0.3741, down 0.3% over the past 24 hours.
Featured image from Morning Tick, chart from TradingView.com
