Why isn’t the U.S SEC suing former Ripple CTO?

• Attorney John Deaton questions why the SEC is allowing ex-Ripple CTO Jed McCaleb to sell XRP in a massive quantity of they qualify as unregistered securities.
• Ripple accuses the SEC of trying to hide their experts from fair public criticism in the ongoing legal battle.

Former Ripple CTO Jed McCaleb has been on a massive selling spree of his XRP tokens over the last few weeks. Since the beginning of July, McCaleb has sold more than 52 million XRP tokens and has been selling an average of 4 million XRP tokens every day.

The selling accelerated particularly during the last week of June 2022. During this period, Ripple sold more than 44 million XRP tokens.

John Deaton, the lawyer representing XRP holders in the ongoing battle with the SEC has asked an interesting question. Deaton asked why isn’t the SEC suing Jed McCaleb for selling unregistered securities XRP (as said by SEC) in the open market. The SEC has maintained its stand that XRP qualifies as unregistered securities even if not sold by Ripple. Deaton asked:

For those supporting the SEC’s claim that #XRP – the token itself – is an investment contract w/Ripple and @Ripple enriched itself; why would the SEC allow the co-founder to continue to sell #XRP (since the lawsuit) for more than 2X the amount Ripple unjustly enriched itself?

Unlike the sued individuals, Deaton said that McCaleb has no control over the Ripple blockchain. The Ripple vs SEC battle has been ongoing for over 18 months now. The case has seen several twists with both parties defending their stand.

Ripple accuses the SEC of taking extreme position

In its ongoing legal battle, defendant Ripple has accused the SEC of taking an “extreme position” in expert reports. Ripple has shared its concern in the letter submitted to District Judge Analisa Torres. Putting light on the matter, attorney James K. Filan writes:

BREAKING: Defendants and SEC in brawl over expert reports. SEC is taking the “extreme position . . . that the names of its experts and any substantive criticism of their reports should be kept from public view.” Expedited briefing requested.

A few weeks ago, the SEC had requested to seal information for one of its experts citing grounds of harassment and threat to life. The SEC has further requested that the same request should be applicable to three other experts. In all, the SEC has requested that the names of five of its experts and the content of their reports be excluded from public view.

Ripple has fired back at the SEC saying: “The SEC maintains that it would be a violation of the protective order for defendants to publicly file on July 12 any reference to experts’ reports or testimony, or name and identity”. 

The Ripple said that the SEC isn’t willing to leave any of its experts open to public criticism for a fair trial.