Ripple Executives Cleared of SEC’s ‘Baseless’ Accusations
- Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse and Executive Chairman Chris Larsen have been cleared of all charges.
- The SEC has voted to dismiss charges against the executives with prejudice.
- Larsen stated that the SEC tried to “advance a political agenda to suffocate crypto in America.”
- Garlinghouse said that he was subjected to accusations “from a rogue regulator with a political agenda.”
In a huge win for the digital asset sector, the CEO and Executive Chairman of American blockchain-focused payments firm Ripple were cleared of all the charges brought against them by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the past few years. The regulator voted to dismiss charges against Brad Garlinghouse, the CEO, and Chris Larsen, the Chairman, with prejudice.
As per a press release shared by the firm, this is the third consecutive victory for Ripple, Garlinghouse, and Larsen after the United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, Judge Analisa Torres, ruled in July 2023 that “XRP is not, in and of itself, a security.”
“Instead of looking for the criminals stealing customer funds on offshore exchanges that were courting political favor, the SEC went after the good guys—along with our entire company of innovators and entrepreneurs—who are building a regulated business based in the U.S. We look forward to the day this chapter is closed once and for all, now that the SEC has dropped the curtain on their absurd theatrics against Chris and me,” said Garlinghouse.
Garlinghouse noted that for over three years, Larsen and his company were subjected to various accusations “from a rogue regulator with a political agenda.” Finally, they have been cleared of all charges.
Garlinghouse took to social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter) to express his thoughts as well.
On the other hand, Larsen stated that the SEC tried to “advance a political agenda to suffocate crypto in America.” He added that “it is a travesty that we were forced to defend ourselves from an ill-advised attack that was flawed from the day it was filed.”
“It is an abuse by the administrative state that politically connected special interests, with clear and proven conflicts of interest, were able to drag our names through the mud in an attempt to ruin us personally and destroy a company so many have worked so hard for so long to build,” Larsen said.
As reported earlier by Bitnation, Ripple CEO Garlinghouse slammed the SEC’s approach to regulation of digital assets through enforcement, stating that the move is driving crypto businesses outside the country. The firm also noted in its press release that nearly 90% of Ripple’s business is outside the U.S. and hiring remains focused in major international markets.
A crypto journalist with over 3 years of experience in DeFi, NFT, metaverse, etc. Parth has worked with major media outlets in the crypto and finance world and has gained experience and expertise in crypto culture after surviving bear and bull markets over the years.
