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- According to reports, Forbes’ Roslyn Layton filed a motion to Judge Analisa Torres in the Southern District of New York to grant her public access to former SEC executive William Hinman’s controversial document.
- Jason Foster, Founder and President of Empower Oversight has expressed huge support for Layton.
Ripple Labs and the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s two-year-long lawsuit is edging to an end with Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse fully certain of victory. Interestingly, new drama keeps unfolding with the recent one having to do with a motion filed by Forbes journalist DR. Roslyn Layton.
According to reports, Layton filed a motion to Judge Analisa Torres in the Southern District of New York to grant her public access to former SEC executive William Hinman’s controversial document.
This is in response to December’s SEC motion to seal some of the documents. For some time now, Layton has written several articles to explain the role of Hinman’s speech in the crypto industry and how it justified the petition.
Layton also argues that the First Amendment and federal common law give the press fundamental rights to get access to these judicial documents. The Forbes Journalist has also recognized the fact that so much is at stake in this lawsuit, not just for Ripple (XRP) and its stakeholders, but the entire crypto industry.
This case is also poised to determine the future of cryptocurrencies in this country, serving as a legal referendum on the SEC’s entire system of ‘regulation by enforcement’ for the industry.
Empower Oversight supports Layton’s position in Ripple and SEC lawsuit
In the latest report, Jason Foster, Founder and President of Empower Oversight has expressed huge support for Layton as he believes that the public deserves to know what the Agency knew about the controversial speech.
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 public deserves answers from the SEC as to what exactly the agency knew about Hinman’s speech and when they knew it.
EMPOWR is a nonprofit organization that seeks to improve independent oversight of government and corporate misconduct.
It can be recalled that Empower Oversight filed a record request with SEC in December to prevent delays in refusing to conduct comprehensive searches for records of communication with the names the Agency asked Empower Oversight to provide.
Prior to that, Empower Oversight filed an opposition to the SEC’s motion of summary judgment in the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit. This was regarding a document that had to do with the conflict of interest and selective enforcement in cryptocurrency cases.
On February 22, pro-XRP attorney James Filan disclosed that an amended motion to intervene has been filed. Layton has always maintained that the SEC offered Hinman speech documents in support of its summary judgment motion. She also argues that there is a lack of explicit regulatory guidance from the SEC, and this resulted in Hinman’s document taking the center stage at this point.
Garlinghouse has this to say about Hinman’s document:
When those come to light, I think you’ll see more how it is possible that the SEC decided to bring a case against Ripple, given what they were saying within their own walls.
