Pretrial settlement not in the cards in SEC vs. Ripple case

The changing of the guard at the United States Securities and Exchange Commission seems to have affected any possible pretrial settlement in the SEC’s case against Ripple.

This conclusion was part of a joint discovery letter filed on Monday before Judge Analisa Torres of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Commenting on the prospects of a pretrial settlement, the letter reads:

“Counsel for the parties have met and conferred and, having previously discussed settlement, do not believe there is a prospect for settlement at this time. However, the parties will promptly notify the Court if any settlement in principle is reached as to any Defendant.”

Apart from the issues concerning a possible settlement, the letter also includes agreements between both parties for the conclusion of the discovery process no later than Aug. 16.

The discovery letter also included plans by the SEC to seek an expanded deposition pool beyond the 10 prescribed under federal law. According to the letter, the commission is interested in two memos received by Ripple and co-founder Chris Larsen allegedly containing warnings that XRP could be deemed an investment contract.

As previously reported by Cointelegraph, the case will begin with a virtual pretrial conference slated for Feb. 22.

Back in December 2020, the SEC sued Ripple for violating securities regulations in the sale of XRP tokens. The action led to several U.S.-based crypto exchanges delisting or suspending the trading of XRP tokens on their platforms.

Investment firms also liquidated their XRP holdings in the wake of the SEC enforcement action. Meanwhile, Ripple spent $690,000, the most by any U.S. crypto company, in lobbying efforts in the country during 2020.

Ripple’s legal troubles are not only limited to the SEC, as the company is also the subject of multiple class-action lawsuits from aggrieved investors all accusing the company of violating securities law.