Former SEC Staffer Says SEC Case Against Ripple Is “Dead Wrong”

When the Securities and Exchange Commission filed a lawsuit in the waning days of the Trump administration against cryptocurrency company Ripple in December, the broader crypto-industry reacted with surprise and alarm. It also led Ripple to deploy some high-profile advocates to defend it in public—including former SEC chair Mary Jo White.

In an interview with Fortune, White claimed the agency she once led made a blunder in suing Ripple for the alleged sale of unlicensed securities. The sale in question relates to the digital currency XRP, which was created by Ripple in 2013 and which today trades broadly in markets around the world.

“There’s no way to sugarcoat it. They’re dead wrong legally and factually,” White said.

White’s opinion should be taken with a grain of salt, given her current role as Ripple’s attorney. Nonetheless, White’s observations are worth noting given her stature. As one of the country’s top securities lawyers and a former U.S. attorney for the powerful Southern District of New York, White has firsthand insight into the politics and processes that inform decision-making at agencies like the SEC, which she led for nearly four years during Barack Obama’s second presidential term.

According to White, the fact that the SEC filed the complaint against Ripple in late December is telling. This was a time when most of the top people at the agency, including former chair Jay Clayton, were on cusp of departing and after the SEC had spent years investigating Ripple.

“As a former U.S. attorney and SEC chair, you know that when it takes that long to figure out a case you probably shouldn’t be bringing it. It’s not something I would do walking out the door,” she said.

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