SEC “Reviewing” Its Communication With JPMorgan About Ripple

The agency says the documents require confidential treatment.  

Ashley Prosper, an XRP community member who filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request last year demanding communications between SEC and JPMorgan involving Ripple, has updated XRP enthusiasts about recent progress. 

In a recent tweet, Prosper said the SEC had received the search results and is currently reviewing the documents. However, the securities regulator noted that a large number of the documents required confidential treatment. 

“Based on our initial review of the record, it appears that a large portion of the records will require that we engage in the CT substantiation process, which involves records for which confidential treatment was requested at the time of their submission,” an excerpt of the email read. 

The Securities and Exchange Commission added that it will require an additional 60 days to the review time in order to engage in “this type of consultation.” 

The FOIA Request 

It is noteworthy that Prosper filed the FOIA request in August 2022, seeking disclosure of any communications between the SEC and JPMorgan about Ripple.  

Like several XRP community members, Prosper alleges that some private companies influenced the SEC’s decision to go after Ripple in December 2020. Prosper filed the FOIA request because he believes the ongoing Ripple lawsuit started with communications between JPMorgan and the SEC. 

However, all efforts to have the SEC release the documents have yielded no positive results. In March, Prosper notified members of the XRP community that the SEC postponed the release of the document to the end of March. 

He disclosed that he had contacted FOIA advocates to take legal action against the SEC over its continued delay. 

#XRP #XRPCommunity
The SEC has once again postponed the release of documents related to JP Morgan, Ripple and XRP. They now say end of March (suspicious). So I have contacted FOIAadvocates to pursue the SEC in court.
Any advice @JsnFostr @attorneyjeremy1 @JohnEDeaton1 @freddyriz

— Ashley PROSPER (@AshleyPROSPER1) March 6, 2023

Reacting to the development, famous crypto influencer Digital Asset Investor said the JPMorgan emails might be bigger than Hinman’s. 

These emails may be bigger than the Hinman Emails: https://t.co/l5wSOCPh4m

— Digital Asset Investor (@digitalassetbuy) April 5, 2023

For context, Hinman’s emails contain SEC internal communications that resulted in the 2018 controversial William Hinman speech, where the former SEC exec declared Ethereum and Bitcoin as non-securities. 

The regulators tried not to surrender the documents. However, after 18 months and six separate bench orders, the SEC handed the documents to Ripple last year. Notably, the public does not know the contents of the documents to date, as the SEC continues to insist on keeping them sealed.