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SEC Seeks Protection for Expert Witness in Ripple Case

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SEC v Ripple Court orders a conference call on Hinmans 2018 emails 1
15
Jun
  • The SEC filed its request to seal its response to the amici motion.
  • They claim this is to prevent further threats to and harassment of the SEC’s Expert.
  • SEC’s expert witness has been facing flak for their contributions in the case.

Earlier today, defense lawyer James K. Filan tweeted that the SEC filed a request to seal its response to the amici motion to participate in the Daubert challenge.

The SEC claims that while some information it seeks to seal has already been publicized by Movants’ counsel, John Deaton, the SEC seeks to seal this and other material to prevent further threats to and harassment of their expert.

The agency further states that expert witnesses understand that their opinions may be challenged by the opposing party and may even expect public challenges to their opinions in high-profile cases. “But no expert witness should expect to be subjected to a campaign of humiliation, harassment, or threats simply by agreeing to act as an expert witness.”

For context, on May 22, Attorney John E Deaton filed a motion letter asking the judge in the SEC vs. Ripple case to let him write a brief on behalf of the 67,300 XRP holders who were been hurt by the lawsuit.

The move came following testimony from an expert SEC witness who gave a report on what information “reasonable” XRP holders were relying on when they bought the token. Deaton replied to this by saying that he bet this witness gave testimony without interviewing a single XRP holder.

In related news, Ripple general counsel Stu Alderoty slammed the SEC for trying to “bully, bulldoze, and bankrupt” crypto innovation in the US in the name of expanding its own regulatory territory.

For the uninitiated, SEC sued Ripple Labs in 2020 for issuing and selling unlicensed securities — XRP tokens — to the public. The crypto world has been following the SEC vs. Ripple lawsuit since then.

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