Ripple Scores Major Win As SEC Emails Reveal Potential Conflict Of Interest

By Kevin • April 10, 2022 9:37 pm • Comments

Empower Oversight was a non-profit organization that was known for filing a FOIA request against the SEC last year due to suspicion that there were members of the SEC that would have a conflict of interest in the Ripple vs. SEC lawsuit.

Just recently, it seems like the request has finally been fulfilled as the recent release of SEC emails show that Hinman did in fact have conflicts of interest.

More importantly, the documents also show that the rest of the committee were also aware of Hinman’s conflict of interest and did not do anything about it.

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With this, Ripple has once again scored a major win against the SEC as the documents prove that even the ethics office of the SEC had warned SEC officials of this risk, but the warnings were ignored.

Financefeeds reports:

“The documents show that the SEC ethics office cautioned former SEC official William Hinman that he had a direct financial interest in Simpson Thacher, yet Hinman continued to meet with the firm in spite of these warnings”, Empower Oversight announced on Twitter.

As can be seen in the documents disclosed, SEC’s Ethics Counsel Shira Minton sent an email to Bill Hinman on January 25, 2018, stating the “analysis is the same for Simpson as it’s always been – you have a bar under the criminal financial conflict with Simpson because you have an ongoing financial interest in the firm. meeting with them while having such a conflict is not permitted.

As we discussed during your briefing – even calls with them are not permitted.

It’s also a serious optics issue – you can’t be seen to be granting special access to a firm you have a financial interest in. this meeting is small enough to raise concerns”.

Records show that Hinman had continued to meet with Simpson Thacher multiple times after the warnings issued by the ethics office.

As Simpson Thacher is a firm that is a member of the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance, this brings up the question on whether or not the details of their communications were fully disclosed to the ethics office.

John Deaton also commented on the recent revelation and shared his opinion where he believes Hinman was actually a double agent because Hinman had a direct financial interest in ensuring that Simpson Thacher succeeded.

The fact that there is even an indication within this lawsuit that a regulatory entity like the SEC could have conflicts of interest should ultimately help settle the case once and for all.

FinanceFeeds concludes:

“Hinman didn’t just have “retirement benefits”. He had an ongoing financial interest in the success of Simpson Thacher. The better his law firm did the better he did.

Helping clients =💰(EEA). Ethics told him to not meet with his partners, yet he continued. He was a double agent!”, said John Deaton, attorney for the 65,000 XRP holders in the XRP lawsuit.

Judge Sarah Netburn will soon be ruling on the SEC’s motion for reconsideration in regard to the production of the plaintiff’s internal documents.

Much has been said about them and many legal experts have shared their suspicions that these emails and notes could destroy the SEC’s case against Ripple.

The emails revealed by Empower Oversight focus only on issues of conflict of interest.

With this, attorneys are optimistic about the next decision made by the court especially as Judge Netburn will have reviewed all the documents.

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