The rumors are true, SEC charges Ripple for selling unlicensed securities
Following an outburst by Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse about his company gearing up for a legal battle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the SEC has officially announced that it will be seeking charges against the company and its CEO.
As reported by BTC PEERS, Garlinghouse told the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday that the Commission was preparing to sue Ripple for selling unlicensed securities. The SEC has finally made real its threat. The Commission is accusing Ripple Labs Inc., its co-founder and ex-CEO Christian Larsen, and the current CEO Brad Garlinghouse of raising over $1.3 billion in funds through the sale of XRP tokens, an asset the SEC now classifies as security.
According to the complaint, Larsen and Garlinghouse have sold close to two billion XRP to investors from their personal stash over the last 8 years. While Larsen has sold around $450 million, Garlinghouse bagged a figure of $150 million.
From 2015 through at least March 2020, while Larsen was an affiliate of Ripple as its CEO and later chairman of the Board, Larsen and his wife sold over 1.7 billion XRP to public investors in the market. Larsen and his wife netted at least $450 million USD from those sales.
From April 2017 through December 2019, while an affiliate of Ripple as CEO, Garlinghouse sold over 321 million XRP he had received from Ripple to public investors in the market, generating approximately $150 million USD from those sales.
The SEC has had previous success going after the sales of unregistered securities. Telegram’s TON token, BitClave, and Salt Blockchain are all testaments to what the Commission can do.
Meanwhile, the price of Ripple has dropped drastically to the rumors and now confirmation of the SEC onslaught.
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