Ripple Ramps Up Effort to Strike SEC’s Expert Materials

San Francisco-based company Ripple has filed a new letter to bolster its motion to strike the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s expert materials.

As reported by U.Today, Ripple moved to strike the expert materials from Andrea Fox, an assistant chief accountant in the regulator’s Division of Enforcement

Its key argument against the SEC hinged on the untimely disclosure. The defendant said that the regulator was supposed to disclose its expert witness before the final stage of the discovery.

Ripple took issue with the fact that Fox was not disclosed as an expert witness. Instead, she was described as a summary witness by the SEC.

In its most recent filing, Ripple says that the SEC has no good explanation as to why Fox’s declaration touts her as an accountant if she is not testifying as an expert. Ripple asserts that Fox did “much more” than simply copying, pasting, and adding numbers.

Furthermore, it says that the SEC’s cases do not support the agency’s characterization of a summary witness. “Even if Fox were a summary witness, rather an expert, the parties’ agreement and the Court’s scheduling order required the SEC to disclose her before the close of discovery.”

In April, Ripple also filed its opposition to the SEC’s motion for remedies, arguing that the civil penalty should be reduced to a puny $10 million. Meanwhile, the SEC argued that Ripple had to fork out a whopping $2 billion.

The SEC originally took Ripple to court all the way back in December 2020. Last July, the company scored a partial victory, with XRP gaining regulatory clarity in the US. Despite this win, the token has significantly underperformed Bitcoin.

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