Top Ripple executives Bradley Garlinghouse and Christian Larsen have rejected SEC legal demands for an in-depth investigation into their personal finances. The government agency is looking to investigate their personal finances as part of their ongoing legal tussle against the company for illegal securities sale of the XRP cryptocurrency.
The SEC has recently filed and then fought a big case against Ripple Labs for alleged illegal security sale of XRP tokens in the US and around the world. The case hit the crypto badly and it hasn’t been able to recover from this setback while other cryptocurrencies have posted new all-time highs and have increased several times over.
Top XRP executives have also come under the microscope and the SEC is reportedly looking at a wide range of accounts and other information as part of the investigation. However, to limit the inquiry from the federal agency, top executives have asked the court to stop the subpoena power of the agency. On March 11, the Ripple legal defence team took a strong objection to the issue and asked the court to help protect personal information and private finances.
According to the legal team:
The SEC’s multi-front attempt to troll through the Individual Defendant’s personal financial information in a non-fraud litigation, where the Defendants have already agreed to produce the relevant information regarding the challenged transactions, is a wholly inappropriate overreach.”
According to the Ripple executives, the SEC believes that the company expenses and personal expenses were mixed by the top top brass. That is why they are trying to undermine the private records of these executives and follow personal wealth trails. This part of the investigation is particularly tied to the sale of the 16 billion XRP starting back in 2013 worth in total of around $1.5 billion at the time but now worth around $6.5 billion.
According to the company, the executives are ready to disclose any kind of company finances but object strongly to any scrutiny of personal expenses which can be misused against individuals. So far, the SEC has sent subpoenas to over 6 banks where the two executives have personal accounts. The war between the two organization is heating up and its fate would decide the immediate future of the cryptocurrency project. The coin XRP is still stuck at around $0.5 and not looking to make any significant gains till the court case is decided. Previously, it hit as high as $3 back in December 2017.
Image source: pixabay.com
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