XRP lawsuit: Attorney Hogan plays SEC counsel against Ripple for 5 minutes
“I don’t have to explain to them whether they are in violation of the law. I’m the regulator. I’m the police. if someone breaks the law, I arrest them and take them to jail.”
The SEC v. Ripple case has driven many within the wider crypto community to learn “legalese” and how the US legal system works.
Crypto enthusiasts have been passionately keeping up to date with each motion, replies, sur-replies, and rulings throughout the lawsuit.
More articles covering the XRP Army live session:
SEC v. Ripple: Jeremy Hogan shares “origin story” and defends Ethereum
Will Ripple win the case and, if not, what will be the future of XRP?
SEC’s strategy is the right one
While the Ripple counsel’s approach has found praise among legal experts, such as attorneys James K. Filan and Jeremy Hogan, the SEC has been criticized for erasing documents, contradictions, delay tactics, not to mention the suspicious handling of the XRP lawsuit.
Still, the SEC’s strategy for the case seems to be the right one, at least according to attorney Jeremy Hogan, partner at Florida-based law firm Hogan & Hogan, who was questioned what would he do if he was the SEC’s counsel.
“They don’t have a bad strategy right now. They’re trying to frame it in the exact same way Judge Torres has seen before, making it really simple”, he said.
The plaintiff’s “simple” strategy consists of gathering all the evidence, going to the judge, and say “when these people bought XRP, the only use cases were something that Ripple had developed. So, they were looking at ripple to increase the value of XRP”, Hogan explained, adding that the SEC is also trying to downplay the fair notice defense.
“We’ve had the Howie test since 1934 with its clear four criteria. There’s no reason Ripple couldn’t have read these tests back in 2013”, Jeremy Hogan hypothetically argued on behalf of the SEC.
“We’re not required to go to every company and explain the laws. It’s impossible to do so”, he continued, adding that the SEC is keeping the section 5 violation simple. “They’re absolutely looking at Ripple for profit”.
“I don’t have to explain to them whether they are in violation of the law. I’m the regulator. I’m the police. if someone breaks the law, I arrest them and take them to jail. That’s gonna be the SEC position”.
Attorney Hogan said that will 100% be how they approach the case, although it is unknown how much evidence the plaintiff has to support its claims.
As to the wider crypto space, with over 117,500 projects trading in the secondary markets, the SEC’s goal is to continue the regulation-by-enforcement practice, effectively scare everybody by suing big names such as Ripple.
The SEC has most recently announced a $100 million settlement with BlockFi for offering unlicensed interest-bearing accounts for retail investors.
SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce stated her concern that crypto lending in the United States is at risk over that settlement and criticized the SEC’s harshness towards innovators as well as the disproportionate fine.
