According to CoinDesk, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is reportedly requesting a New York judge to impose a $2 billion judgment against Ripple Labs. The motion for judgment and remedies was filed on Friday and remains under seal to outside parties. Ripple Labs' chief legal officer, Stuart Alderoty, stated that redacted versions of the documents will be publicly available by Tuesday, March 26. The judgment would conclude this phase of the multi-year legal battle between Ripple Labs and the SEC, which started in December 2020 when the SEC sued the crypto firm and its executives for allegedly violating federal securities laws by selling XRP to both institutional and retail customers. The lawsuit led to the widespread delisting or trading suspension of XRP from U.S. exchanges.
A federal judge ruled last year that Ripple violated federal securities laws in directly selling XRP to institutional investors, but not in selling XRP to retail investors through exchanges. Ripple Labs' CEO, Brad Garlinghouse, indicated in his X (formerly Twitter) post that the company will fight back against the proposed judgment motion. He wrote, 'The SEC plans to ask the Judge for $2B in a case that involved no allegations (let alone findings) of fraud or recklessness. There is absolutely no precedent for this. We will continue to expose the SEC for what they are when we respond to this.' Alderoty stated that the company will file its response to the SEC's motion next month. An SEC spokesperson declined to comment.
