Ripple Labs has slammed the US Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) over its action to keep its expert witnesses identities concealed as the ongoing lawsuit case between the two continues.
The crypto and currency solutions provider stated in its filing that the SEC is “abusing” in an attempt to protect information in the case “to prevent criticism of its experts reaching the public”.
These new findings come during the ongoing ‘SEC v. Ripple Labs Inc’ lawsuit case, where the SEC filed a lawsuit against Ripple for its XRP cryptocurrency conducting $1.3bn in unregistered offerings, which Ripple and its executives deny.
The filed complaint by Ripple was forwarded to US District Judge Analisa Torres, which outlined that three witness experts identities, who assisted the SEC with the lawsuit, were to remain sealed from public knowledge.
A fourth witness expert, Patrick B. Doody, has been the subject of ‘anonymous threatening postings on social media’, according to the SEC.
The SEC argued that publicly releasing information surrounding the lawsuit could “inflame the discourse and result in further harassment and intimidation”. This may have been raised by the agency due to six XRP holders, who were granted amicus status, filing their own challenge against Doody’s findings once his identity had been revealed.
Ripple’s lawyers stated: “The SEC’s attempt to shield the identities and opinions of its experts from any public scrutiny is both unprecedented and unsupported by any evidence of need.”
The crypto service firm asked District Judge Torres for a balanced argument, allowing both sides to state their argument and come to a conclusion whether any information should be shielded from public knowledge.
The SEC v. Ripple Labs Inc case has garnered attention from attorneys across the cryptocurrency sector, believing that this may have legal ramifications for other digital assets.
