- Documents belonging to William Hinman revealed some clues about internal discussions among SEC employees at the time and were made public on Tuesday.
- Ripple’s Chief Legal Officer Stuart Alderoty is calling for a new investigation into Hinman.
- Alderoty stated that Hinman exceeded his authority and created laws, emphasizing that unelected bureaucrats should faithfully enforce the law within the limits of their authority.
Ripple’s Chief Legal Officer makes a new request following the disclosure of Hinman documents related to the Ripple-SEC case.
Ripple Says Hinman Needs to be Examined
Documents belonging to William Hinman, who is the Director of the Division of Corporation Finance at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), revealed some clues about internal discussions among SEC employees at the time and were made public on Tuesday.
Ripple’s Chief Legal Officer Stuart Alderoty is calling for a new investigation into Hinman. In a series of tweets on Tuesday, Alderoty explained the necessity of uncovering the reasons behind the famous ETH speech and the application of the Howey test.
In that speech in 2018, Hinman stated that Ethereum (ETH) should not be classified as a security because it had “decentralized enough.” This surprised the SEC when it later filed a lawsuit against Ripple, accusing it of selling $1.3 billion worth of XRP tokens as unregistered securities.
Alderoty stated that Hinman exceeded his authority and created laws, emphasizing that unelected bureaucrats should faithfully enforce the law within the limits of their authority.
Alderoty pointed out that by examining behind-the-scenes arrangements and correspondence related to the speech, the former director invented “reasonable factors” while determining what “decentralized enough” meant.
The Hinman Problem
Legal officer Alderoty said that the documents showed that Hinman ignored numerous warnings that the speech contained “unfounded analyses not based on law” and caused “greater confusion” in the cryptocurrency market.
In addition to the examination of Hinman, Alderoty called on the SEC to remove the speech from its website. He also emphasized that the speech should no longer be used in discussions about whether a token is a security.
Ripple’s Chief Legal Officer stated that “despite the SEC’s constant change of opinion on the importance of the speech to the case, it still appears on the agency’s website.”
The news of Ripple (XRP) demanding an investigation into Hinman and the speeches was first published on CoinOtag.
