The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) attempted to conceal Director Hinman’s speech documents by submitting a new response about attorney-client privilege. Bill Hinman, also known as William Hinman, is a former director of the SEC’s Corporate Finance Division. He became a key player in the long-running legal dispute between the SEC and Ripple Labs over allegedly fraudulent securities services unregistered via XRP.
SEC can’t confirm if the video of Bill Hinman is Bill Hinman in the Ripple case
Speaking at the 2018 Fintech Week Conference – while serving at the SEC – Hinman stated that the sale of Ether (ETH) did not constitute “securities transactions.” But the SEC is trying to take the obvious to slow down the case. The agency cannot confirm whether a video primarily featuring Bill Hinman features Bill Hinman.
According to a May 18 motion to compel Requests for Admission (RFAs) submitted by Ripple Labs’ legal team Debevoise & Plimpton, the SEC has “failed to respond by the applicable rules as to 53 RFAs on important subjects where there is no real dispute.”
#XRPCommunity #SECGov v. #Ripple #XRP The SEC has filed its reply in support of its April 29, 2022 letter claiming that the attorney-client privilege protects internal SEC documents relating to Hinman’s speech.https://t.co/jTiOZlDYeg
— James K. Filan 🇺🇸🇮🇪96k+ (beware of imposters) (@FilanLaw) May 19, 2022
Ripple seeks to ask the court to order the RFAs to be accepted or the SEC to provide revised responses. Regarding the Hilman-focused RFAs, the SEC has been unable to confirm a series of essentially undeniable cases. For example, while Hinman was fully visible and audible during a recorded interview at a public event, the SEC has refused to confirm or deny if the recording is authentic or if the claims are not true. Hinman’s claim is indeed him.
— stefan huber.justice (@Leerzeit) May 19, 2022
The YouTube video referenced by Ripple’s legal team appears to have been uploaded by the interviewer, Chris Brummer, a law professor at Georgetown. The account dates back to 2016, and bears his name, profile picture links to all of his professional affiliate sites. Even so, the SEC claims to be all at sea about the identity of the mystery man. “Subject to all of the foregoing objections, and after reasonable inquiry, the information is known and currently available is not sufficient to enable the Commission to admit or deny this request,” they stated.
The SEC has also denied a request that it cannot challenge the video’s authenticity and appears intent on not disclosing any information on the matter. Many viewers have argued that Hinman’s comment could be one of the deciding factors against the SEC’s argument that the XRP token should be considered a security. It has also recently been suggested that Hinman may have had a conflict of interest while working at the SEC, which could have influenced the case’s outcome.
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