The US SEC vs Ripple lawsuit has been going on for nearly two years. Recent rulings seem to be going in the favor of the defendants. The last judgment proved that the commission was confused regarding some important aspects of the case. In a big development,
Clayton And Hinman allegedly conspired to destroy Ripple
On April 11, 2022, Attorney Fred Rispoli, representing XRP investor Shannon O’Leary, filed a class action against the former executives. Rispoli said they had decided to take a stand against the tortious interference done by officials against Ripple, which had damaged the finances of Ripple investors.
The lawsuit further alleges that Clayton and Hinman’s persecution of Ripple was driven by the interests of third parties who stood to benefit from Ripple’s closure. Rispoli said the claims under the lawsuit exceeded $5 million.
SEC’s case against Ripple has already thousands of Ripple community people filing multiple class action lawsuits against the SEC. But the class action marks the first time that SEC officials have been individually targeted.
XRP: A big threat to ETH?
In a Twitter thread, Rispoli said that both SEC executives had their conspiracy to knock down the XRPL network. He added that Hinman and Clayton knew that XRP was a big threat to their previous clients.
Mr. Clayton and Mr. Hinman through their actions described in the complaint (linked in final tweet), and operating outside of the SEC, took unreasonable and improper action to help their former (and now-current) clients target a rival, competitor blockchain network...16/20
— Fred Rispoli (@freddyriz) April 13, 2022
The complaint alleges the officials influenced the SEC not to probe the similar Ethereum Network. Interestingly, it added that Clayton and Hinman’s prior and recent clients had multi-billion stakes in the Ethereum. However, it also alleged that both of the officials were hired directly by the firms that heavily invested in the ETH network. Rispoli mentioned that defendant’s conduct caused the plaintiff’s business expectancy of at least $42 Billion in the XRPL Network.
In the recent judgment, the court refused the SEC’s view to treat Hinman’s infamous ETH speech as guidance to evaluate digital asset offerings. The judge mentioned that now the commission is confused over its stance regarding the speech. The SEC avoided taking the responsibility for Hinman’s address.
