The SEC is due to turn over unredacted emails with Hinman’s internal communications next week.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has mysteriously removed former Commissioner William Hinman’s biography from its website.
It comes just 7 days before a court will require the SEC to provide unredacted copies of all of Hinman’s emails, which many say is paramount to the agency’s lawsuit with crypto giant Ripple.
On the SEC website, Hinman’s biography now only includes his name, photo, and his previous role as “Director of Corporate Finance” from May 2017 to December 2020. His former biography stated that in his role, Hinman has provided “assistance to companies in interpreting SEC rules and making recommendations to the Commission regarding new and existing rules.”
Now the biography looks like this:
It was like this:
In the month of Hinman’s departure from office, the SEC filed a lawsuit against Ripple Labs for an unregistered sale of the XRP cryptocurrency, which collapsed in price by 45% that day and flew out of the top 3 by market capitalization.
Hinman is known for giving a speech in 2018, in which he stated that he did not consider current transactions and sales of ether as securities transactions. Ripple and other SEC critics have long been waiting for internal transcripts and speech discussions to determine if ETH received preferential treatment over XRP.
The end of the Ripple trial is near
The Ripple v. SEC case looms over the US crypto industry, which is seeking clarity and a legal precedent for cryptocurrencies to be delegated as securities in the United States. Both the SEC and Ripple filed for a summary judgment in December 2022, raising hope that a conclusion may not be far off.
Ripple’s victory in securing the documents of Hinman’s speech in October 2022 was also considered a major victory, but they remained confidential at the time.
Notable crypto figures such as Charles Hoskinson believe that the SEC lawsuit is likely to end this month. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said early last month that he expects a summary ruling in the case within a few weeks.
Ripple has already spent $200 million in court.