The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has failed in a bid to gain access to any legal communications Ripple Labs sought or received as to whether sales of XRP were subject to federal securities law.
- Judge Sarah Netburn of the District Court for the Southern District of New York dismissed the request from earlier this month, according to a memo filed on May 30, upholding Ripple’s attorney-client privilege.
- According to the memo, the SEC had contested that “privilege was waived by putting Ripple’s good-faith belief that it was complying with the law into question through Ripple’s fair notice defense.” The fair notice defense argues that Ripple had no reasonable notice from the SEC on whether XRP was a legal offering.
- The SEC cites more than 70 similar enforcement actions against other crypto companies as sufficient for Ripple to be aware of XRP’s legal standing. Ripple’s case cites Upton v. SEC, in which a federal court upheld a fair notice defense, although the SEC argued that the case was “an outlier case arising from very different circumstances.”