Ripple vs SEC: US Regulator Moves To Block San Francisco Payments Company From Using Certain Evidence in Lawsuit

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is raising an objection aimed at preventing Ripple from using the regulator’s documents in the ongoing lawsuit.

In a filing, the SEC says it opposes an order issued earlier this month compelling the US markets regulator to disclose the drafts of a speech its former director William Hinman gave in 2018 where he stated that Ethereum (ETH) was not a security.

According to the SEC, the speech drafts are confidential internal communications and irrelevant in the case.

“As internal communications that no market participant, including Defendants, has seen, the Speech Drafts are not relevant to any of the claims or defenses at issue in this case. Yet the Orders compel the SEC to disclose them.

Even if they were relevant, the Speech Drafts contain confidential deliberations and legal advice protected by the deliberative process privilege (‘DPP’) and the attorney-client privilege.”

The US markets regulator further says in the filing that the Hinman speech was not “binding SEC policy” but was developed as “part of the SEC’s larger discussions about the application of the securities laws to digital assets.”

The order compelling the SEC filing to produce the Hinman speech drafts was issued by a federal judge earlier this month.

The SEC sued Ripple in December of 2020, accusing the payments firm of selling XRP as an unregistered security.

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