SEC vs. Ripple: Reasons why defendant’s motion should be denied as per the SEC

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has requested a two-day extension to respond to Ripple’s motion to strike out a supplemental expert rebuttal report from Dr. Albert Metz. However, many within the crypto community saw this as a move to buy more time or stall the proceedings. 

‘Poorly written response’

#XRPCommunity #SECGov v. #Ripple #XRP The SEC has filed its response to Ripple’s Motion to Strike the Metz Supplemental Expert Report.

— James K. Filan ???????????????? (@FilanLaw) March 18, 2022

The SEC requested that the court deny Ripple’s request to strike the supplemental rebuttal report. The regulators believed that the motion was established to prevent Dr. Metz from giving his expert opinion about the lawsuit. The filing noted,

“Dr. Metz’s expert report is an analysis that determines specific announcements made by Ripple at the time of ICO affecting XRP’s price.”

The SEC cited three main reasons why the defendant’s motion should be denied.

• The SEC in the opposition has said that Ripple is trying to rule out Dr. Metz’s expert opinions in this matter. Judge Torres should decide this as the motion disregards the procedure.
• The Commission asserted that Ripple is seeking an unfair advantage in this lawsuit. The agency claims that expert testimony will be critical to the trier of fact.
• The SEC mentioned that defendants could show no genuine prejudice as the Report is not an appropriate sanction under Fed. R. Civ. P. 26 and 37.

Nonetheless, Attorney James K. Filan opined that SEC’s response was poorly crafted,

What a poorly written response. It’s repetitive (a sign of a weak argument), it wrongly accuses Ripple of failing to follow proper procedure when the failure was the SEC’s, and, almost comically, offers to consent to reopening a deadline the SEC blew. ????‍♂️

— James K. Filan ???????????????? (@FilanLaw) March 18, 2022

Well, the response sparked reactions from interested parties in the lawsuit. For instance, attorney Jeremy Hogan, a famed lawyer had an unfamiliar stand on the matter. Attorney Hogan said,

“Not having the SEC expert address something obviously coming from Ripple’s experts was a mistake.  Now they are trying to fix it and …that’s not a good position.”

What’s different this time? 

XRP was up by over 4% in the last 24 hours on the market side. The #6 largest token was trading at the $0.81 mark at press time.

#XRP IS GONNA HAVE A MASSIVE BREAKOUT SOON! pic.twitter.com/KkKcb59pdk

— DustyBC Crypto News (@TheDustyBC) March 18, 2022

Such steps could provide a trigger to reach close to the magical $1 mark given the past victories.