SEC Filed To Keep Hinman Documents Hidden In Lawsuit With Ripple

As part of its action against Ripple, a San Francisco payments business, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has asked a court to keep some documents secret.

Last week, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) moved to seal documents containing internal SEC deliberations about a speech by former SEC official William Hinman in 2018. In that speech, Hinman officially stated that he believed both Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) are not securities.

#XRPCommunity #SECGov v. #Ripple #XRP The SEC has sought permission to file one omnibus (big) motion to exclude or limit expert testimony, up to 120 pages long. Ripple Defendants do not object provided that they be allowed the same page limit for their response in opposition. pic.twitter.com/haa4Mr7XU1

— James K. Filan 🇺🇸🇮🇪 126k (beware of imposters) (@FilanLaw) July 6, 2022

James K. Filan, representing the defendant, was the first to release the relevant court records.

Lawyers for the SEC argue that the impact that the revelation of the documents would have on the SEC’s current deliberations on a wide variety of issues should be weighed against the evident lack of relevance of these materials to the summary judgment arguments. The internal considerations and conversations of various SEC officials are reflected in the Hinman Speech Documents.

These materials undoubtedly indicate secret deliberations, regardless of whether or not they reflect agency deliberations that the deliberative process privilege should protect. Officials at the SEC expressed their opinions and stances on matters related to SEC programming. When these materials were made public, it would hinder the agency’s officials’ capacity to have open, honest debates and collaborations.

The SEC had repeatedly fought to keep the Hinman papers out of court, but District Judge Analisa Torres ordered their release in September.

According to Ripple, the documents are highly relevant and may explain why the SEC declared some cryptocurrencies as securities while others have not.

Additionally, the SEC asked the court last week to redact the names and other identifying information of SEC expert witnesses and some XRP investors who submitted affidavits in support of the regulator’s summary judgment petition.

The SEC also suggested a ban on disclosing workers’ and other parties’ social security numbers and bank account details.

In December 2020, the SEC filed a lawsuit against Ripple, claiming the company had illegally traded XRP as unregistered security for years.