Attorney John Deaton, the one representing over 72k XRP holders and the amici status in a case between Ripple and SEC has given further information about, Bill Hinman, a prominent SEC official’s hold of interest in the ongoing rigorous oversight of cryptocurrency.
As stated by Amici’s attorney, John Deaton, Hinman received a share of 9 million from Simpson Thacher, a partner of Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA) despite being the head of SEC’s corporate Finance.
John Deaton shared some documents unveiling how much Bill Hinman received as shares between 2017 and 2018, the time when he made a controversial Ethereum free pass statement.
According to the documents shared by John Deaton, it shows that in 2017, Hinman received $7.8 million in profit sharing and another $1.8 million the following year. And Deaton further stated in support of the documents, that the funds paid to Hinman in profit sharing prompted the agency’s Ethics Office to bar him from meeting with Simpson Thacher while he was at the SEC.
The idea of the profit received by Bill Hinman was to prevent him from having a conflict of interest during his tenure. This is because Simpson Thacher had ties to the EEA, an organization established to market Ethereum as an enterprise solution. Receiving any form of payment from the company could prompt Hinman to work in the law firm’s favour.
More also, the Empower Oversight revealed that Bill Hinman has met with Simpson Thatcher severally despite the warning.
Read Also: Following The Ripple Unlocking 1 Billion XRP, Ripple Locked Back A Whopping 900 Million Crypto Asset
Deaton stated:
“This is why there was a complete criminal bar against him having any contact with Simpson Thacher. Yet, he disobeyed the SEC Ethics Office again and again,”
It is worth noting that the Hinman Bill is seen as an integral part of the current lawsuit between the Ripple and SEC. it is no news that the issue was a result of tagging Ripple’s token as a security. The case started as far as 2022and is still ongoing after a series of lawsuits filed against each party.
Ripple has sought internal documents of Hinman’s speech that declared Ethereum a non-security. Ripple believes that during the drafting of Hinman’s 2018 speech, some SEC officials discussed the Silicon Valley tech company given its popularity at the time.
Unfortunately, all the attempts of Ripple to get the draft of Hinman’s speech have been proving abortive and according to Deaton, the SEC would rather settle with Ripple than surrender the Hinman documents to the blockchain company.
SEC And Ripple Jointly File A Reply
Recently, SEC and Ripple jointly filed a reply to the responses to the motions to exclude the expert testimony. As stated in the letter, they will be filed under seal until the sealing issues are briefed.
As stated in the letter tweeted by James K. Filan, SEC and Ripple submitted a joint application to request a briefing schedule for motions to seal portions of the parties’ filing in connection with their motion to exclude the expert testimony.