Ripple Vs. SEC: Government Watchdog Supports Motion to Unseal Hinman Docs

Forbes journalist Dr. Roslyn Layton is receiving support for her motion to intervene in the lawsuit between Ripple Labs and the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) seeking public access to the Hinman speech documents. Empower Oversight Whistleblowers & Research (EMPOWR) has expressed its support for the motion.

EMPOWR is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that works to improve independent oversight of government and corporate misconduct. Its mission is to help insiders document and report corruption to the appropriate authorities.

Importance Of The Hinman Docs In The Ripple Case

Via Twitter, the government watchdog wrote that founder and president Jason Foster’s organization supports the motion to unseal the Hinman documents related to SEC conflicts of interest in cryptocurrencies. In a press release, Foster stated that the public deserves answers from the SEC about what exactly the agency knew about Hinman’s speech and when it knew it:

The SEC has consistently stonewalled any attempts from public interest transparency organizations, including Empower Oversight, to shine a light on conflicts of interest and ethical questions at the agency.

The statement goes on to say that EMPOWR has been ignored by the U.S. agency since August 2021. At that time, the government watchdog made a request which is still the subject of an ongoing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the SEC.

Last October, Empower Oversight filed its opposition to the SEC’s motion for summary judgment in the FOIA lawsuit over documents related to conflicts of interest and selective enforcement in cryptocurrency cases. In December, the organization also filed a records request with the SEC seeking full records of communications with a list of names.

Thus, EMPOWR’s interest aligns with the intent of Dr. Roslyn Layton, who argues that the Ripple case against the SEC will decide the future of cryptocurrencies in the United States.

According to Dr. Layton, the case will serve as a legal referendum on the SEC’s entire system of “regulation by enforcement” for the industry, which is why the public has a legitimate interest in the Hinman documents.

In a new development in Dr. Layton’s motion to intervene, pro-XRP attorney James Filan announced in a tweet on February 22 that an amended motion to intervene had been filed.

Dr. Layton’s original motion suggested that the SEC had offered the Hinman speech documents in support of its own summary judgment motion, which was not the case. To that extent, the motion had to be amended on formal grounds to preserve the chance of being granted by the U.S. Southern District Court of New York judge.

At press time, the XRP price held at $0.3888 and remained in its sideways trend.