US Magistrate Judge Asks Ripple To Produce 1M Missing Slack Messages

Sarah Netburn (a U.S. Magistrate) has given Ripple the orders to provide 1M Slack messages delivered among the employees as the SEC has demanded to access them. Notwithstanding the protest of Ripple as it would cost them about $1M, the judge considered that there is the critical importance of those messages because some unique evidence for the securities commission might be revealed through their examination regarding the unregistered securities’ trade. In 2020’s December, the case was filed by the SEC opposing Ripple Labs and the two CEOs thereof named Bradley Garlinghouse and Christian Larsen for trading XRP despite being unregistered security.

As per Law360, during the initial motion to force Ripple on 9th August, the securities commission debated that the messages delivered among the employees of the organization have great relevance to the case. It also demanded all the messages sent from the 22 custodians of the emails, along with the Slack ones. In the recent month, it has been told by the SEC to the Judge that the previously produced Slack messages by the firm seemed to be incomplete. Ripple firstly denied the assertion completely; however, then it modified its statement by saying that it was due to a mistake during the processing of the data.

It added that the error in data processing led to the production of a short quantity of the appropriate messages, and across 1M, messages got missing. The SEC opposed by arguing that the company’s failure is signifying its prejudicial attitude. It further mentioned that the remaining messages would be closely related to the suit. It described that the contents of the messages involve discussions regarding the firm’s wish to develop speculative trading through XRP, the impact of the company’s concerns, announcements, and efforts on the XRP price, the link between the and the significance of the sales of XRP and the entire business of Ripple, as well as XRP’s regulatory status.

Ripple debated that the production of the messages was unreasonable and unfair, for it cost them $1M across many months. Judge Netburn replied that the expenditure over the production of messages was less significant in front of their importance regarding the case. She further stated that Ripple had previously agreed to provide the respective Slack messages. Thus, the resources cannot be presented as an excuse.