SEC will ask for $2B in fines and penalties — Ripple chief legal officer

Ripple Labs chief legal officer Stuart Alderoty said the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) asked a federal judge for a $2-billion penalty against the blockchain firm.

In a March 25 X post, Alderoty said the SEC requested a judge impose $2 billion in fines and penalties against Ripple as part of a filing under seal until March 26. The civil case against Ripple has been ongoing since the SEC filed in 2020.

“Rather than faithfully apply the law, the SEC remains bent on wanting to punish and intimidate Ripple – and the industry at large,” said Alderoty. “We trust the Court will approach the remedies phase fairly.”

The Ripple chief legal officer said the firm planned to file a response to the SEC request in April but claimed the regulator “trades in statements that are false, mischaracterized and designed to mislead.” On March 18, a Utah judge imposed sanctions on the SEC for acting in “bad faith” regarding the evidence it provided against the firm Debt Box. 

“There is absolutely no precedent for this,” said Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse on X, referring to the $2-billion fine. “We will continue to expose the SEC for what they are when we respond to this.”

Related: Judge grants SEC’s deadline extension on Ripple case

Filed by the SEC in December 2020, the regulator’s lawsuit against Ripple, Garlinghouse, and co-founder Chris Larsen alleged the firm raised $1.3 billion in unregistered securities through sales of XRP tokens. In July 2023, Judge Analisa Torres ruled that XRP was not a security in regard to programmatic sales on digital asset exchanges.

The ruling may have contributed to the SEC moving to dismiss charges against Garlinghouse and Larsen in October 2023 with prejudice. The regulator has ongoing civil lawsuits against crypto firms in the United States, including Coinbase, Binance, and Kraken.

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