The defendants of the blockchain company Ripple have filed their opposition to the Securities Exchange Commission’s (SEC) motion requesting an excess length brief and a reply brief in support of the SEC’s forthcoming objections to Judge Netburn’s Order compelling the SEC to release the Hinman documents.
Court documents shared by Ripple defence attorney James K. Filan on July 22 reveal that Ripple had indeed filed its opposition after the SEC had requested permission to file a 30-page opening brief and a 10-page reply brief in support of the SEC’s Objections to Magistrate Judge Netburn’s Ruling Ordering the SEC to the disclose the Hinman Speech documents.
Ripples opposition states:
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“The Court’s Individual Practices provide 20 pages for objections to magistrate judges’ orders, and do not provide for reply briefs- presumably on the grounds that the objector should have full notice of the relevant opposition arguments on issues already ruled on by the magistrate judge.”
It added:
“The SEC has offered no justification for deviating from those rules here, either in its letter to the Court or in its outreach to Defendants.”
The debate rages over the number of documents
Notably, Magistrate Judge Netburn’s orders had compelled the production of a limited number of documents related to a personal speech given by the former Director of the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance (the “Hinman Speech”).
Ripple defendants continued to argue in their opposition that:
“The SEC requests to file twice the usual number of pages in support of its objection, divided between an opening and reply brief. The SEC’s only stated justification is that it is objecting to three orders.”
The filing also states also stated, “the SEC’s request for a reply brief is at best premature.”
The defendants argued since the SEC has not yet received the briefing from the defendants at this point, it is impossible for it to have already come to the conclusion that there are points it has not been given the chance to answer, “nor has it offered any other justification for a reply.”
As the case drags on the Chief Executive Officer of Ripple (XRP), Brad Garlinghouse, acknowledged the financial cost of the company’s engagement in a lawsuit “we will have spent over $100 million on legal fees fighting the SEC.”
According to Garlinghouse, the SEC counts on the fact that the majority of crypto-related enterprises lack the financial resources necessary to file a legal challenge against the agency.
