SEC Seeks to Protect the Identities of Third Parties in the Exhibit Filed in Response to Ripple’s RFA

The SEC and Ripple have agreed that the court should keep the identities of the third parties mentioned in the exhibit confidential. 

The Securities and Exchange Commission has requested that the court seal a portion of Exhibit A filed to the Defendants’ motion. The request is based on accusations made by Ripple that the agency’s response to the Fourth Set of Requests for Admission (RFA) was insufficient.

According to the SEC, the move is intended to protect the identities of the parties whose privacy concerns supersede that of the public interest.

The SEC noted that the request to keep selected portions of Exhibit A confidential was agreed to by Ripple, adding that the blockchain company and its execs do not object.

Reason for the SEC’s Request

Furthermore, the Plaintiff also cited three criteria that the court usually considers to seal documents. The SEC asserted that “Exhibit A” is a judicial document, which has the capacity to influence the court’s ruling on the pending motion.

“However, the identities of the third parties are not relevant to the Court’s decision regarding Defendants’ motion. Indeed, the privacy interests of third parties should weigh heavily when balancing the presumption of disclosure,” the SEC stated.

Argument Over the Fourth Set RFA 

Recall that Ripple had asserted that the SEC did not adequately answer most of the questions contained in the Fourth Set of Requests for Admissions.

However, the Plaintiff noted that it did not adequately respond to the question because it lacked sufficient information on the subject matter.

The SEC’s response did not go down well with Ripple, prompting the blockchain company to accuse the agency of deliberately refusing to sufficiently respond to RFA questions.

“The SEC’s contention that it cannot answer these RFAs because it does not understand the terms ‘market participants’, ‘OIEA requests’ or FinHub requests does not pass muster. The SEC understands exactly what it is being asked to admit: that before December 22, 2022, multiple people asked OIEA and FinHub if XRP was a security and the SEC never once said that it was,” Ripple said.

Attorney James K. Filan shared the development on Twitter.

#XRPCommunity #SECGov v. #Ripple #XRP The SEC has filed a letter requesting that the Court seal a portion of Exhibit A to the Ripple Defendants’ latest filing regarding the insufficiency of the SEC’s responses to the Fourth Set of Requests for Admissions. Ripple does not object. pic.twitter.com/51ZUo4jt66

— James K. Filan ????101k+ (beware of imposters) (@FilanLaw) June 10, 2022