Ripple Sued Again for Alleged Sales of Unregistered Securities

Ripple Labs Inc. and the company’s CEO, Bradley Garlinghouse, were sued again last week, according to a complaint dated June 27 and filed in San Mateo County, CA. The plaintiff is California resident David Oconer who alleges, in a class action suit, that Ripple and Garlinghouse “promoted, sold and solicited the sale of XRP.” XRP is Ripple’s digital asset. Furthermore, the suit contends that the defendants “raised hundreds of millions of dollars through the unregistered sale of XRP, including selling to retail investors, in violation of the law.”  

As Ripple has made efforts to distinguish itself as separate from XRP, including a recent logo change to XRP, the plaintiff Oconer asserts in the lawsuit that Ripple and XRP are, in fact, very much intertwined.

Ripple has faced a barrage of recent lawsuits that make similar allegations. One lawsuit filed in May by XRP investor Ryan Coffey was recently transferred from state court to federal court. It is now pending in the California Northern District Court under Case #4:18-cv-03286.