John Deaton Highlights “Good News” as Ripple Lawsuit Deadline Nears

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XRP Lawyer Slams Former SEC Chair
  • Ripple backer and legal expert “Bill,” said SEC has not made a convincing case.
  • CryptoLaw founder John Deaton believes Ripple can benefit from SEC’s ambiguity.
  • Final hearing date will be announced soon.

A Ripple enthusiast and legal expert, going by the name “Bill” on Twitter, has shared his thoughts on the SEC’s rebuttal to the defendant’s petition to dismiss. In his opinion, the SEC has not made a convincing case against Ripple and would be in a stronger position if it were going after individual Ripple sales or offers of XRP.

The SEC has opposed the Ripple Defendants’ motion for summary judgment in the ongoing lawsuit, prompting the comments. The Ripple community had some back and forth as the post sparked a debate.

Bill eventually slammed the SEC for conducting “an absurdly broad case of targeting all XRP sales or offers for eight years, including in secondary markets.”

Ripple might benefit from the SEC’s ambiguity, says CryptoLaw founder John Deaton. In his response to Bill, he asserted that it is to Ripple’s benefit the SEC didn’t offer “any specific sales with contracts and allege that although it may be to an accredited investor, it was subterfuge to get to the secondary market.”

“No specific transactions, just all transactions. I don’t see how it sticks,” Deaton added.

However, Bill finds cracks in the SEC’s legal argumentation due to its mischaracterization of Ripple’s effort to construct an ambiguous statutory phrase, “investment contract,” by referring to pre-1933 blue sky law decisions. He can only find two convincing arguments in the SEC’s favor.

One potential downside for Ripple is that the term scheme is so limited. Ripple argues that the phrase “transaction or scheme” simply means that the court must consider the instrument’s broader context.

As the SEC points out, Ripple does not provide any examples to back up this assertion. Second, the SEC stresses that sales and unregistered offers are both prohibited by Section 5 of the Securities Act.

It is expected that the forthcoming key dates in the Ripple case will be announced soon. On October 24, the parties presented publicly redacted copies of their opposing briefs. Parts of the exhibit were made public on October 24. Meanwhile, the parties’ deadline to file publicly redacted copies of their reply briefs is November 21.

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