Pro-XRP attorney Bill Morgan has criticized Jorge Tenreiro, who served as the principal counsel in the Ripple lawsuit. This follows the end of the prolonged legal conflict between the cryptocurrency company and the U.S. SEC.
XRP Attorney Critiques Counsel in Ripple Lawsuit
In an X post, Bill Morgan disclosed that the leading counsel for the SEC in the Ripple case has now become a partner at a prominent law firm. The pro-XRP attorney further mentioned that Tenreiro’s profile highlights some of his achievements in the crypto enforcement sphere. However, he observed that it strangely omits and fails to mention his two-thirds defeat in the Ripple lawsuit and the appeal he initiated, which the SEC consented to dismiss.
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In this context, Morgan asserted that even Tenreiro acknowledges that Ripple triumphed in significant aspects. He remarked that he will always recall the lead counsel for endorsing an “unsustainable legal argument” that XRP was classified as a security, which Judge Torres ruled against by asserting that the altcoin itself is not a security.
Meanwhile, the pro-XRP attorney referred to the lead counsel’s attempt to undermine John Deaton’s reputation before the court in the Ripple dispute. Deaton participated actively in the case as an amicus curiae, advocating for the crypto firm in its battle against the Commission. Notably, Tenreiro led other cryptocurrency cases during his tenure at the SEC.
He initiated enforcement actions against Binance, Terraform Labs, and Sam Bankman-Fried in the FTX matter. Similar to the Ripple lawsuit, the Binance case has also been withdrawn, while Tenreiro and his team secured a favorable ruling in the Terraform case. Notably, he was reassigned to the IT department when the Trump administration took office. This occurred prior to Tenreiro’s departure from the SEC.
XRP Lawsuit Finally Resolves
The Ripple SEC lawsuit has ultimately wrapped up after nearly five years, since the Commission initially filed the case. This development comes after the U.S. Appeals Court’s endorsement of the Joint Stipulation of Dismissal from both the cryptocurrency firm and the Commission. Consequently, the SEC and Ripple have now withdrawn their appeal and counter-appeal cases, respectively.
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The next step will involve Ripple fulfilling its $125 million monetary judgment that Judge Torres mandated against it in her final decision due to its securities violations. The cryptocurrency firm will need to remit the entire amount, as Judge Torres opted not to adopt the settlement arrangement both parties had reached earlier this year. Under the settlement agreement, Ripple would have only been required to pay $50 million out of the $125 million.
At the time of this writing, the XRP price is trading around $2.94, down nearly 3% over the last 24 hours, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
Featured image from iStock, chart from Tradingview.com
