Chris Larsen called the suit an “ill-advised attack that was flawed from the day it was filed.”
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) asked the court on Thursday to dismiss charges against Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse and Executive Chairman Chris Larsen.
Both were charged alongside their company for violation of securities law and sale of the XRP token. The regulator will continue to pursue its action against Ripple Labs.
SEC drops charges against Ripple execs
In a significant turn of events, the SEC v. Ripple lawsuit will now have the firm’s executives dropped from the case. All charges against Brad Garlinghouse and Chris Larsen have been dismissed.
Ripple’s Chief Legal Officer Stuart Alderoty said that the move by the SEC was not just a settlement but a “surrender.” The SEC had previously accused the duo of sale of illegal securities in the form of XRP token.
“The SEC made a serious mistake going after Brad & Chris personally – and now, they’ve capitulated, dismissing all charges against our executives. This is not a settlement. This is a surrender by the SEC,” Alderoty wrote on X.
The notice of dismissal which was filed at the US District Court for the Southern District of New York notified the court that parties to the Ripple case had stipulated to dismissal with prejudice. The filing noted that there was no need to schedule a trial.
Read more: SEC can’t appeal Ripple decision, says District Judge
This dismissal has been described as a stunning capitulation by the government. Reacting to the news, Chris Larsen called the suit an “ill-advised attack that was flawed from the day it was filed.”
This doesn’t mark the end of the trial as the regulator has said that it shall continue its case against Ripple Labs.
“The SEC and Ripple intend to meet and confer on a potential briefing schedule with respect to the pending issue in the case—what remedies are proper against Ripple for its Section 5 violations with respect to its Institutional Sales of XRP,” the regulator said.
The SEC started taking legal action against Garlinghouse, Larsen, and Ripple in December 2020, due to the sales of XRP tokens that the commission asserted were securities. A federal judge ruled in July that XRP, when offered for sale to individual investors, was not a security.
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