Ripple’s Chief Legal Officer, Stuart Alderoty, has expressed confidence in the company’s ongoing legal battle against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). In a recent statement, Alderoty suggested that the SEC’s appeal is unlikely to succeed and could even lead to a more favorable outcome for Ripple.
Alderoty argued that the Second Circuit Court of Appeals will either affirm the district court’s ruling in favor of Ripple or expand upon it. He dismissed the possibility of a remand to the district court as a “remote hope” for the SEC.
Moreover, Alderoty pointed out that during the SEC’s failed “interlocutory” appeal, Judge Torres made it clear that if the appeal were successful, Ripple’s defenses, including the Fair Notice defense, would be back on the table. The Fair Notice defense argues that a person of “ordinary intelligence” should have been aware of what the law prohibited. Alderoty suggested that the SEC might find itself in an awkward position if they were to argue that Judge Torres, who ruled against them, is not a person of “ordinary intelligence.”
Comparing the SEC’s legal strategy to Captain Ahab’s obsessive pursuit of Moby Dick, Alderoty suggested that the case is now starting to resemble a combination of Herman Melville’s classic novel and the comedic legal drama “My Cousin Vinny.”
