The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has been acting behind Ripple’s back to pursue its foreign partners, a new court motion by the San Francisco-based firm has alleged. The US-based blockchain firm Ripple Labs has claimed that the regulator has been engaging in intimidation tactics to scare off its partners. Earlier, the US SEC had sued Ripple for offering unregistered security.
Ripple’s legal team filed the motion at the Southern District of New York.
Ripple has claimed in its filing that the U.S. financial regulator has violated federal rules. This comes just days after Ripple’s top executives – and defendants in the case – filed a motion to dismiss the SEC lawsuit. Ripple’s legal team filed the motion at the Southern District of New York. “We write on behalf of Defendants … concerning the SEC’s undisclosed and pervasive use of SEC pre-litigation investigative tools to conduct discovery in this lawsuit,” the motion states. Ripple claims the SEC has acknowledged that it made at least 11 MOU requests seeking documents from overseas entities.
SEC has refused to give Ripple and its executives notice, Ripple claims.
The motion filed by Ripple further alleges that the SEC has refused to give its executives notice, violating federal rules. The motion states, “while the SEC has agreed to share the “substance” of its MOU requests, it refuses to produce the requests themselves or related correspondence with foreign regulators, claiming privilege, and likewise declines to provide Defendants notice of any future requests.” The blockchain firm has requested the judge to order the SEC to withdraw its outstanding MOU requests to foreign regulators. Ripple also wants the judge to order the regulator to produce the communications it has had with foreign regulators on the Ripple case.
