Dissatisfied investors who bought Ripple’s XRP have filed fresh legal claims, arguing that the company misled them by selling securities in the form of the XRP tokens.
The leader of the class action against Ripple, Bradley Sostack, said the firm couldn’t be excused from ongoing breaches of security law, adding that Ripple’s claim that the argument was “without precedent” should be discarded.
In a suit, the plaintiff accused the company of breaching securities guidelines by issuing XRP monthly in sales to the public with promises of gain. However, Ripple’s legal team previously argued that the case should be foreclosed being time-barred due to the statutory period of three years within which the action should have been filed.
Sostack argued that bearing in mind that Ripple has continued in the monthly sales should imply that the suit was filed within time while Ripple should be made to pay for breaking the law.
The move by Sostack is the latest in the suit which Ripple lawyers sought to have the court dismiss even though the company’s legal team was careful to avoid overemphasizing the issue of XRP not being a security.
The latest filing says there’s no precedent to take a cue from due to the fact that digital currencies are novel invention. It highlighted that Ripple’s view that liability is barred by statute does not apply.
The Ripple legal team in their motion had stated that:
“Defendants have failed to cite any case – and indeed, no court has found – that liability for multiple offerings have been barred by the statute of repose.”
This is what the new filing aims to contest, as well as prove that XRP sold by Ripple is security contrary to securities law. Counting their losses, the investors maintained that they lost various amounts in XRP investments, with Sostack said to have incurred losses amounting to $118,000 due to investments gone awry with XRP.
The Ripple’s legal team has until December 4 to file a response. The trial is not likely to make a determination on whether XRP is a security as claimed by the plaintiffs. The case is expected to commence on January 15, 2020.
In the meantime, Ripple’s biggest concern is still that with disgruntled investors coming after the company, more suits may be in the offing.
