SEC vs Ripple: Defendant offers Bargain in the Slack data dispute

The latest development in the XRP Lawsuit saw Ripple’s counsel asserting to settle the Slack data dispute in a bargain. The defendants are offering the discovery of additional, relevant, and case-specific Slack data. However, the negotiated deal is turned down by the SEC.

“The reasonable offer of compromise that Ripple made to produce additional Slack messages from nine custodians that—unlike the SEC’s proposal—focuses on more significant custodians with high Slack usage levels”, Defendant’s counsel wrote in the letter to Judge Netburn.

Plaintiff Motion to Compel for Slack Data

The SEC filed an emergency motion about the Slack communications discovery dispute. SEC’s Motion to Compel would require Ripple to produce a vast quantity of additional Slack communications from the mentioned 22 custodians. The SEC had written to Judge Netburn, requesting to revisit its claims against Slack conversations of Ripple employees.

SEC revealed that upon the initial request, Ripple agreed to comply and produce the required Slack data. However, as the date of discovery came closer, Ripple unceremoniously pulled back, excusing itself from the discovery, in lieu of a “data processing mistake”.

Additionally, the SEC claimed that the missing Slack data holds “Highly Relevant Communications” to the case. These include conversations of the individual respondent, Garlinghouse, along with messages among all designated custodians of the company. Thereafter, the SEC has attested a list of 11 Ripple witnesses using incomplete records of their communications. Furthermore, the Commission has filed a plea for the discovery of responsive messages from 22 out of 33 of its email custodians.

Defendant claims Slack Data discovery to be redundant

Ripple has argued against SEC’s Motion to Compel by highlighting the unreasonable timeframe and expenses required to go through the discovery process. The defendants added that they have already delivered relevant data and marked additional discovery as redundant and overlapping.

“The SEC’s extraordinary demand calls for an extensive and costly fishing expedition that would likely take months to complete and come at very significant cost. The SEC’s disproportionate request is also unreasonably duplicative of Ripple’s extensive production of over one million pages of discovery, including emails, documents, text messages, and responsive Slack messages for 33 custodians.”, Ripple writes in the Opposition letter to SEC’s Motion to Compel.