SEC Seeks Ripple's Financial Statements and Sales Contracts

According to Blockworks, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is requesting a court order for Ripple to provide financial statements and sales contracts. The request was made in a Thursday filing to Southern District of New York Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn. This comes months after Judge Analisa Torres partially sided with Ripple in her summary judgment, stating that institutional sales of Ripple's XRP token are an unregistered securities offering, while programmatic sales via crypto exchanges are not. The SEC is now seeking Ripple's financial statements from 2022 and 2023, as well as contracts related to institutional sales dated after the initial complaint filed in December 2020. Additionally, the SEC requests Ripple to disclose the proceeds made from institutional sales since the complaint was filed on pre-complaint contracts. The information is needed to help Judge Torres determine appropriate injunctions and civil penalties for Ripple. The letter was filed as the deadline for remedies-related discovery approaches on February 12th. This marks the SEC's first motion relating to the damages discovery period, which was scheduled in November. The SEC claims that Ripple has not produced any post-complaint discovery. Despite several Zoom calls and emails, the two parties have been unable to reach an agreement on the SEC's latest request, leading to an impasse that the court must resolve. The SEC argues that courts routinely consider post-complaint conduct when determining remedies, making their request reasonable. After the remedies-related discovery deadline, the SEC has one month to submit its case regarding Ripple's remedies, and Ripple has one month to object. It is possible that the parties will reach a settlement agreement on remedies, which would require court approval.