Court Rejects SEC’s Attempt to Seal Hinman Documents in SEC v. Ripple Case

• The court has identified the Hinman documents as judicial documents.
• The SEC argues that the Hinman document should be sealed.

Judge Analisa Torres denied the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s motion to seal the Hinman documents in the case of Ripple v. SEC.

According to the report, the U.S. District Court has identified the Hinman documents as judicial documents. Judge Torres stated that the SEC moves to seal the Hinman speech documents, which reflect the non-public deliberations by SEC officials in connection with the former director of the SEC’s finance division, William Hinman’s June 2018 speech. So the court disagrees with sealing the Hinman documents.

However, the SEC argues that the document should be sealed. Because of the lack of relevance, these documents would be highly prejudicial to the SEC. The court also rejected the SEC’s arguments and stated that they are judicial documents subject to a strong presumption of public access. 

This may add additional pressure on the SEC for a potential settlement, and it strengthens Ripple’s fair notice defense.