Ripple executives Bradley Garlinghouse and Christian Larsen have denied requests by the US Securities and Exchange Commission to provide personal financial information as part of an ongoing investigation into a possible XRP sale securities violation.
On March 11, attorneys for the co-founders of Ripple Labs filed for a protection order over their personal information and asked the court to overturn subpoenas issued at six of the defendants’ banks.
The banking institutions specifically named were SVB Financial Group, First Republic Bank, New York Federal Reserve Bank, Silver Lake Bank, Silvergate Bank, and Citibank.
Garlinghouse and Larsen’s attorneys argued that the SEC was beyond the correct breadth of its investigation when it alleged the defendants mixed their personal finances with those of Ripple Labs. In the registration from Thursday it says:
“The SEC’s multi-front attempt to search the individual defendant’s personal financial information in a non-fraudulent litigation in which the defendants have already agreed to provide the relevant information about the offending transactions is a wholly unreasonable excess.”
The “contested transactions” in question relate to the unregistered sale of 14.6 billion XRP as of 2013 – an amount of $ 1.38 billion at the time of the complaint, which is now $ 6.5 billion.
The Garlinghouse and Larsen legal team have made it clear their clients’ willingness to work together on financial records related to the XRP sales, including trading records, and the documentation of the compensation both received from Ripple.
“Specifically, the individual defendants have agreed to (a) keep trading records of the sale of XRP that the SEC is contesting in this case, and (b) financial records of the compensation they received from Ripple,” it said of filing.
Financial records of unrelated business activities and daily expense accounts are not, in the lawyers’ view, relevant to the present case. The submission states:
“So, as designed, these inquiries ask for everything from the proceeds of unrelated business activities to the amount of money you spend in the grocery store each week.”
The SEC-issued subpoenas require years of transaction data and monthly billing from Garlinghouse and Larsen’s personal bank accounts, including pictures of all money orders, checks, and electronic transfers.
