Attorney James K. Filan Says Unsealed SEC V. Ripple Documents Favor Ripple

By Kevin • February 19, 2022 1:23 pm • Comments

In the past month, the decision by the court to unseal legal memos on XRP has turned out to be positive news for all XRP investors.

Attorney James Filan gave his first impression analysis of the documents and stated that the documents indicated that Ripple was being very careful to ensure that XRP was not considered a security back in 2012 and even took proactive steps on this when working with the law firm.

If the documents clearly show that Ripple was being proactive about this and followed the legal advice that they were provided, this would very much turn the court’s decision to be in favor of Ripple.

Trending: Ripple Spells Out Penalty Terms To SEC

Filan goes into more detail about the documents that are being reviewed right now and what he is looking for.

FinanceFeed reports:

James K. Filan, a Connecticut-based attorney that has been following the SEC v. Ripple case, has shared his first impressions on the legal memos.

“Overall favorable to Ripple and the Individual Defendants. Both memos are from Perkins Coie. The first memo was prepared in February 2012 and sent to Jed McCaleb and Jesse Powell.

It says that if NewCoin is sold in what now would look like an ICO (I didn’t see the term ICO used), it would be likely that it would be considered a security.

But Ripple then revised its business plan and went back to Perkins Coie, which issued a second memo in October 2012. This second memo was sent to Chris Larsen and Jed McCaleb”, he said.

“The October memo was more positive and while it said that there was a “small” risk that the SEC could disagree, Perkins Coie concluded that Ripple Credits should not be considered securities.

The memo also suggested steps Ripple could take to minimize the risk that the SEC would disagree with Perkins Coie. The memos cover the full landscape of legal issues (not just the issue of securities) and I think show how careful Ripple was trying to be. Also, this was 5 years before the SEC really even started talking about digital tokens”.

Filan’s main focus point is that the documents clearly show that Ripple had no intention of having XRP be considered a security in the first place and did their part in ensuring that they used all the legal tools that they had to ensure that they would not run into any issues in the future.

Ripple General Counsel Stuart Alderoty also agreed with the same analysis and stated that the 2012 documents  showed that Ripple was told in a legal analysis that XRP would not be considered a security.

What is truly interesting is that these documents were dated back in 2012, but the SEC did not take any legal action until 2020.

This meant that there was an entire 8 years that the SEC took before it decided to disagree with the legal analysis that was given.

Some critics are suggesting that this recent change in mind may suggest that there may be an agenda behind the regulatory agency’s recent actions.

So far, many are still waiting on the results as lawyers are saying that it is difficult to estimate exactly when the case could be resolved.

CoinTelegraph reports:

Hassan said that “It is difficult to say whether the case is close to resolution since the discovery and pleading disputes are continuing.

But the stakes are very high for both parties, so we cannot rule out a settlement.”

Even if Ripple’s side chooses to settle without trial at some point in the process, the litigation has already demonstrated that a well-resourced crypto company can cause the SEC serious trouble in an open fight.

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