Ripple Labs v. SEC jury trial is set for spring 2024
Ripple Labs et al and the SEC have until Dec. 4, 2023 to submit all pretrial filings, document exhibits, and motions to exclude evidence from the jury
kkssr/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks
A federal judge has issued a timeline for when we can expect to hear the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s arguments against Ripple Labs and its current and former executives in front of a jury.
The case is expected to go to trial in the Southern District of New York during the second quarter of 2024, court filings released Wednesday show. Both parties have two weeks to submit blackout dates to the court.
All parties have until Dec. 4, 2023 to submit all pretrial filings, document exhibits and motions to exclude evidence from the jury, the judge added.
The latest filing comes weeks after Judge Analisa Torres handed down a partial summary judgment in the case, which started in December 2020. The court ruled that while Ripple’s institutional sales of XRP were found to constitute an unregistered securities offering, programmatic sales were not.
The upcoming trial will determine the legal liability of Ripple’s founder and former CEO Christian Larsen and former chief operating officer and current CEO Brad Garlinghouse. The two were charged with aiding and abetting securities laws violations with regards to Ripple’s XRP token. Ripple Labs does not face aiding and abetting charges.
While many in the crypto community and pro-Ripple camp saw the ruling as a major win, the summary judgment does not set a precedent for other tokens and issuers.
Torres’ ruling did not determine whether or not a physical written contract is required as part of the Howey test. Ripple argues that because it did not have a written contract, it does not qualify as a security.
The trial announcement came hours after a widely-circulated document claiming the SEC had elected not to appeal the programmatic sales ruling proved to be fake. XRP tokens rallied around 3% on the false reports.
The SEC has not filed an appeal yet, and it does not have a strict deadline to submit an interlocutory appeal. However, legal experts say that if an appeal is coming, it will likely be filed by the end of this week. Aug. 11 will be the 30-day mark from when the summary judgment was handed down, after which it will be harder for the SEC to make its case, Jeremy Hogan, partner at Hogan and Hogan, said in a tweet.
Per Torres’ summary judgment, either party must make its appeal request within a “reasonable” amount of time.
Updated Aug. 9, 2023 at 4:19 pm ET: Clarified current and former Ripple Labs executives are facing charges of aiding and abetting securities law violations. These charges will be determined at trial. Ripple Labs has not been charged with aiding and abetting.
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