Pro-XRP Lawyer Blasts SEC Lead Counsel In Ripple Case Following Conclusion

Pro-XRP lawyer Bill Morgan has called out Jorge Tenreiro, who was the lead counsel in the Ripple case. This follows the conclusion of the long-running legal battle between the crypto firm and the U.S. SEC. 

In an X post, Bill Morgan revealed that the lead counsel for the SEC in the Ripple case is now a partner at a major law firm. The pro-XRP lawyer further stated that Tenreiro’s profile refers to some of his courtroom successes in crypto enforcement. However, he noted it oddly overlooks and does not mention his two-thirds loss in the Ripple case and the appeal he filed, which the SEC agreed to dismiss. 

In line with this, Morgan declared that even Tenreiro knows that Ripple succeeded in what matters. He said that he will always remember the lead counsel for running an “unsustainable legal theory” that XRP was a security, which Judge Torres ruled against by stating that the altcoin in itself is not a security. 

Meanwhile, the pro-XRP lawyer alluded to the lead counsel’s attempt to smear John Deaton’s character before the court in the Ripple case. Deaton was actively involved in the case as an amicus curiae, supporting the crypto firm in its case against the Commission. Notably, Tenreiro spearheaded other crypto cases during his time at the SEC. 

He brought the enforcement actions against Binance, Terraform Labs, and Sam Bankman-Fried in the FTX case. Just like the Ripple case, the Binance case has also been dropped, while Tenreiro and his team received a favorable ruling in the Terraform case. Notably, he was reassigned to the IT department when the Trump administration came into office. This was before Tenreiro’s exit from the SEC. 

The Ripple SEC lawsuit has finally concluded after almost five years, since the Commission first instituted the case. This development follows the U.S. Appeals Court’s approval of the Joint Stipulation of Dismissal from the crypto firm and the Commission. With this, the SEC and Ripple have now dropped their appeal and cross-appeal cases, respectively. 

The next move will be for Ripple to fulfill its $125 million monetary judgment that Judge Torres ordered against it in her final ruling due to its securities violations. The crypto firm will have to pay the complete sum, as Judge Torres decided not to adopt the settlement agreement that both parties had reached earlier in the year. Under the settlement agreement, Ripple would have only had to pay $50 million out of the $125 million. 

At the time of writing, the XRP price is trading at around $2.94, down almost 3% in the last 24 hours, according to data from CoinMarketCap.