SEC will pay Ripple Lawyer fee to cover work on additional expert opinion
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Ripple have finally agreed on a fee to cover the costs of Dr. Albert Metz supplemental report.
In a motion filed recently, both parties disclosed that they have agreed upon a fee reward, however they did not disclose the amount to be paid. The motion filed said, “Pursuant to the Court’s April 19, 2022 order, Defendants Ripple Labs and Plaintiff Securities and Exchange Commission have met, conferred, and agreed upon a fee award.”
Recently, the court granted Ripple and SEC, a two-week time extension to discuss and agree on appropriate attorney’s fee required to depose the supplemental rebuttal report from Dr. Albert Metz. The deadline for this was extended to 27th May 2022.
Now both parties have agreed upon a fee award. James Filan, an attorney announced this development on Twitter on 27th May.
#XRPCommunity #SECGov v. #Ripple #XRP The parties have agreed upon a fee award in connection with the Metz Supplemental Report and Deposition and the SEC is working with the Ripple Defendants to make the required payment. The amount of the award has not been disclosed. pic.twitter.com/zI3hn3tEXE
— James K. Filan 🇺🇸🇮🇪100k+ (beware of imposters) (@FilanLaw) May 27, 2022
Why Fee Award?
SEC and Ripple are in a legal tussle for quite some time. SEC alleged that Ripple has conducted an illegal offering through sales of XRP, a cryptocurrency. While Ripple has disputed that XRP is a virtual currency not a stock and should be treated as such.
Pursuant to this, SEC had submitted an expert report from Dr. Albert Metz on the last day of discovery. SEC received warning for its improper conduct from the court. The court also ordered SEC to cover the expenses of Ripple’s attorney throughout the deposition of Dr. Metz testimony.
According to Judge Netburn’s ruling, “The SEC has conducted itself improperly by serving an unauthorized supplemental report on the last day of discovery.”
SEC did not object and agreed to work with Ripple to decide an amount that will cover the attorney fee and expenses during deposition. The agreement took some time and both parties were granted a two-week extension to work out the details.
Ripple and SEC
The lawsuit has been going on for the last 15 months and this new misconduct ruling on SEC has given new hope to Ripple representatives and community members. Ripple CEO, Brad Garlinghouse, quoted that the wheel of justice moves slowly, however they are confident of winning the lawsuit.
Ripple Labs Inc., is a San Francisco based start-up, is creator of XRP, a cryptocurrency that financial institutions can use to transfer money with negligible fees and wait-time.
