XRP Lawsuit: Court Schedules Hearing Date for SEC’s Plea Against Hinman Deposition

The Southern District Court of New York has scheduled a telephonic conference to further the hearing on SEC’s plea against the deposition of former SEC director William Hinman. The hearing is scheduled for 15th July 2021 at 3:00 p.m. The telephonic conference will be made available to the public with dial-in information provided before the hearing.

Sarah Netburn, Magistrate Judge of the District Court for the Southern District of New York will be looking over the conference. Defense lawyer, James K. Filan tweeted today informing every one of the upcoming events of the crypto community’s historic lawsuit.

Why is Hinman’s deposition important for Ripple?

Former Director of SEC’s Division of Corporate Finance, William H. Hinman could either make or break the case in the XRP Lawsuit. Ripple is aiming to put Hinman on the stand instead of his high rank at the SEC and the defendants will then bring in the context of Hinman’s 2018 speech at the Yahoo Finance All Markets Summit: Crypto, against him.

In his speech, Hinman claimed Ether to be a non-security while comparing it to Bitcoin. Hinman’s superior position at the SEC paired with his statement against XRP’s status as security is capable of completely turning the tables against the SEC.

Why is SEC against Hinman’s deposition?

SEC filed a plea to quash Hinman’s deposition and against the former plea by Ripple requesting to put Hinman on the stand. SEC has further asserted that the plea for the deposition of a high-ranking officer by Ripple is ‘irrelevant’ as their only proof of Hinman’s “unique first-hand knowledge” is circumstantial.

“Defendants have not demonstrated as required by Lederman that Director Hinman has ‘unique first-hand knowledge’ or that the information they seek is not available from other sources as to any facts about which they seek to elicit testimony. The only topic on which Defendants even claim (incorrectly) that Director Hinman has ‘unique first-hand knowledge’ is ‘the circumstances under which he prepared and gave his [Ether] speech and the agency’s treatment of the speech after the fact’.”, SEC wrote in their letter to the Judge Netburn.

However, Judge Netburn scheduling a hearing on SEC’s request to quash Hinman’s deposition may not result in a positive outcome for Ripple. This conference could mean the decision may gravitate in favor of removing Hinman from Defendant’s list of witnesses.