SEC Drops Charges Against Ripple CEO and Chairman

The securities regulator notified the court that it is voluntarily dismissing the charges against Brad Garlinghouse and Chris Larsen.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is dropping charges against Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse and co-founder and Chairman Chris Larsen.

In a court filing on Oct. 19, the SEC notified the court that it would be dismissing the charges against the Ripple executives voluntarily, and as such, it would be calling off the trial scheduled for next year.

In December 2020, the SEC filed charges against Garlinghouse and Larsen, alleging the two were guilty of aiding and abetting the company in violating U.S. securities laws through the sale of XRP.

“For nearly three years, Chris and I have been the subject of baseless allegations from a rogue regulator with a political agenda,” said Garlinghouse in a statement. 

“Instead of looking for the criminals stealing customer funds on offshore exchanges that were courting political favor, the SEC went after the good guys – along with our entire company of innovators and entrepreneurs – who are building a regulated business based in the U.S.”

The voluntary dismissal means that the SEC cannot file charges against the two again. However, the SEC still intends to pursue charges against Ripple for its institutional sales of XRP and plans to meet with the firm to continue discussions on the appropriate remedies.

The price of XRP rose 7% on the news, and was trading at $0.51 at the time of writing.

Earlier this year, Ripple celebrated a major victory against the SEC, with a judge ruling that programmatic sales of XRP to retail customers on exchanges did not qualify as a securities offering. The same judge later denied the SEC’s appeal on the ruling that the SEC had not proven its point that there were uncertainties about the law or a basis for differences in opinion.