Ripple is now looking for information from 15 leading global exchanges that it believes can invalidate the SEC’s allegations. The company filed a motion in the New York court on June 3, asking the judge to contact Bitfinex, OKEx and other companies to seek information related to the case.
In their motion, CEO Brad Garlinghouse and Chairman Chris Larsen asked the court to send letters of formal notice to 15 stock exchanges in Europe and Asia. These are Bitstamp, Bithumb, Upbit, Huobi Global, Korbit, Upbit Singapore, Bitlish, Coinbene, AscendX (formerly Bitmax) Bitrue Singapore, ZB Network Technology, BitMart, Bitforex, HitBTC and iFinex (parent company of Bitfinex and its sister company Tether.)
In the legal memorandum accompanying the application letter, the two defendants stated that the exchange is located in various jurisdictions, including the Cayman Islands, Seychelles, Malta, Hong Kong, the United Kingdom and South Korea.
Why Documents are Important in Ripple vs SEC
Larsen and Garlinghouse explain why the documents requested are important and note:
“The Individual Defendants seek foreign discovery on the basis of their good faith belief that the listed entities possess unique documents and information concerning this case, and specifically, concerning the process by which transactions in XRP allegedly conducted by the Individual Defendants on foreign digital asset trading platforms were conducted.”
Information from the exchange will bolster Ripple’s defense of the SEC’s allegations that the two executives sold more than 2 billion XRP to “public investors in the market.” In the SEC’s amended complaint, the regulator alleged that the two were selling XRPs on the global digital asset trading platform. The SEC tried to get them to hand over the proceeds from these sales.
In short, Ripple is trying to prove that Garlinghouse and Larsen only trade their XRP in forex transactions. Such sales are outside the scope of the SEC. Ripple pointed out:
This is the third issue that Ripple pointed out in its defense against the SEC allegations. First of all, XRP wasn’t a security from the start. Then it introduced the Defense of Fair Notice, on which her case most relied. This is also a defense. If successful, it will resolve the entire SEC case. It is now vying for SEC jurisdiction over the location of XRP transactions.
