Pro-XRP attorney John Deaton has taken his time to reveal why former executives of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) might have played unfairly when Ripple Labs Inc was sued back in December 2020. Taking to his official X account, Deaton called out the intricate relationship between former SEC Chairman Jay Clayton and top cop William Hinman with Joseph Lubin, Ethereum and ConsenSys co-founder.
According to his expose, the move by Joseph Lubin to hire Jay Clayton’s law firm Sullivan & Cromwell appears as a very smart play that might have prevented the former SEC chairman from voting in favor of an enforcement action against Ethereum. Though he claimed he received a backlash from some XRP holders for holding this opinion, Clayton believes the Ripple lawsuit might have been averted should Ripple Labs have hired the same law firm.
Several #XRP holders got irritated at me b/c I said we must admit @ethereumJoseph, who quickly hired Sullivan & Cromwell, right after Clayton’s appointment, to represent @Consensys, including hiring several S&C lawyers as staff attorneys, including making a S&C Partner Deputy… https://t.co/7qxzkRjO0c
— John E Deaton (@JohnEDeaton1) August 20, 2023
Deaton revealed that William Hinman’s own law firm, Simpson Thacher, had a Chinese affiliate as a key adviser in the Canaan IPO, a firm that profited immensely from Bitcoin and Ethereum mining.
The XRP holders’ lawyer connected the dots as to why the duo of Bitcoin and Ethereum received less backlash at the time while, against clear directives, Jay Clayton led a lawsuit against Ripple Labs and XRP, the top competitor to the crypto companies that both executives represent.
Is merit of case changing?
The emphatic answer is no, as the case has progressed to receiving its very first major ruling from Judge Analisa Torres, with a clear interlocutory appeal from the SEC filed this past week.
Though revelations from Deaton about the unfair advantage dished out by the SEC’s top cops will not change the narrative, it helps keep the XRP holders he is representing in the know, public knowledge that might help other cases in the near future.
With more than $200 million in legal fees incurred by Ripple Labs thus far, the industry is hoping for a total victory against the SEC in the end.
