‘Ripple is well positioned to pay a significant civil penalty,’ says the SEC
A brief from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) describes fines and penalties against blockchain company Ripple, a different narrative than the one pushed by company officials.
In a March 25 lawsuit filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, SEC attorneys ordered Ripple to pay $876,308,712 in disgorgement and $198,150,940 in prejudgment interest and $876,308,712 in civil penalties — a total of $1.95 billion. According to the regulator, fines and penalties are appropriate based on Ripple's “violation of the law” by continuing to sell XRP after legal warnings.
“Ripple is well positioned to pay a significant civil penalty,” the SEC said. “And one is warranted here because a civil penalty should not be the only price for a business that violates securities laws, as the second court did, and the need for protection is clear because of Ripple's huge unregistered sales of XRP. In the last three years.”
The filing was consistent with what Ripple's chief legal officer, Stuart Alderotti, said in a March 25 post on X-Post that would be made public: about $2 billion in fines and penalties. Alderoty said the SEC plans to “punish and intimidate” Ripple, as the company plans to respond to the ruling in April.
The proposed SECorder added:
“Only a significant sanction from this court and the return of Ripple's ill-gotten gains from its violations will force Ripple to correct its behavior.”
Related: RippleX Addresses XRP Ledger's AMM Pool Flaw, Advises User Caution
In a December 2020 SEC lawsuit against Ripple, CEO Brad Garlinghouse and co-founder Chris Larsen, the company raised $1.3 billion in unregistered securities through the sale of XRP tokens. The case created waves in the crypto space when Judge Analisa Torres ruled in July 2023 that XRP was not a security for programmatic sales on a digital asset exchange.
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