U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission reaching out to foreign regulators in its Ripple/XRP lawsuit

The Ripple lawsuit that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has started, does bring some excitement. A lot is happening. Just a few days days ago, it was revealed that the SEC is reaching out to foreign regulators requesting assistance for ‘discovery purposes’.

As of recent, the SEC has asked the Court to deny Ripple’s dual requests for an order requiring the regulatory body to stop using foreign requests. In addition, Ripple’s requests also included that the SEC turn over all the material already collected.

However, the SEC argues that Ripple’s requests are “devoid of any legal authority on point.”

In the SEC’s motion to U.S. Judge Netburn it is stated that:

“Requests or requiring the disclosure of communications with foreign regulators could have broad adverse implications for the SEC across a wide array of governmental actions where the agency pursues cross-border cooperation to protect the United States’ capital markets and its investors.”

The SEC has approached foreign regulators through voluntary requests. The SEC’s motion includes the following:

“Since the start of discovery, the SEC has issued 11 Requests to 9 foreign regulators, covering approximately 20 entities and their affiliates. The Requests seek assistance in obtaining documents from 14 digital asset trading platforms, five companies that Ripple claims “use” XRP in its so-called “On-Demand Liquidity” and one investor that purchased XRP directly from Ripple, and its affiliates.”

Foreign regulators decline cooperation

So far, two foreign regulators have declined to cooperate while three others have prohibited the SEC from disclosing its communications under the laws of their jurisdictions.

Brad Garlinghouse, Chief Executive Officer of Ripple Labs, has always said that most of their customers, roughly 95%, are based outside the U.S. and that Ripple’s services are not popular in the U.S. Considering this, it is no surprise that the SEC is expanding its investigative efforts elsewhere in an attempt to win the case.