Ripple Labs, its top executives, and the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) have made critical announcements regarding upcoming trial dates and related deadlines in the ongoing legal proceedings.
In a filing made on August 9th in the US Southern District Court of New York, Judge Analisa Torres expressed her intention to proceed with a jury trial for Ripple, including CEO Brad Garlinghouse and co-founder Chris Larsen. The expected trial start date was targeted between April 1 and June 30, 2024. However, with both parties submitting blackout dates, the earliest start date is now pushed to April 20, 2024, after a slight delay.
When is the Ripple Lawsuit?
Ripple Labs, Garlinghouse, Larsen, and the SEC all timely filed their motions to the Court by August 23rd. Yesterday, Brad Garlinghouse and Chris Larsen’s attorneys notified Judge Torres of their unavailability for the trial during the second quarter of 2024. Both will not be available between April 1st and April 14th.
On the other hand, Ripple Labs’ legal representatives sent a letter stating that the company is “ready for trial at any time during the second quarter of 2024.” The SEC informed that it is not available for the dates of April 15-19, May 1-7, and May 27-31. This means that the trial will start slightly delayed, at the earliest on April 20th.
At the beginning of the case, Judge Torres issued a partial summary judgment. This significant ruling established that Ripple’s corporate XRP sales constituted an unregistered securities offering, but its programmatic sales did not fall within this definition.
The upcoming trial will be instrumental in determining the legal culpability of Ripple’s top executives, who are both accused of aiding and abetting securities law violations related to the XRP token. Notably, Ripple Labs’ exemption from aiding and abetting charges has been noteworthy.
The Future of the Ripple and SEC Lawsuit
Furthermore, significant trial deadlines have recently been set. All parties must file any and all motion restrictions by December 4, 2023. Objections to restriction motions must be filed by December 18, 2023.
December 4th also requires the submission of all necessary pretrial filings, including joint pretrial statements, proposed jury instructions, verdict forms, and voir dire questions. Both parties are expected to deliver a copy of each document to the court by December 4th.
Another significant development was the SEC’s application to approve an appeal on August 18th. After evaluating both parties’ submissions, Judge Torres gave the green light to the SEC’s appeal request. However, the current filings avoid disclosing the rationale behind this decision.
Responding to ongoing proceedings, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse stated on Twitter:
Reminder – an appeal (even if granted) doesn’t change the fact that XRP is not a security. This is not the subject of the discussion or the trial. However, the SEC continues to allege that Chris and I acted recklessly in believing that XRP was not a security. This is entirely baseless.
At the time of writing, XRP was trading at $0.53, indicating a reversal of past gains that were, so to speak, returned.
