Ripple and CEO Brad Garlinghouse are now facing even more legal issues as a lawsuit was filed in a Florida district court. Alleging that they have sold “millions of dollars or more” in XRP tokens without registering with federal or Florida authorities.
This new lawsuit comes on the heels of the US Securities and Exchange Commission filing a lawsuit against Ripple, Garlinghouse, and co-founder Christian Larsen. That one alleges they sold over 14 billion units of XRP for at least $1.38 billion. Causing multiple cryptocurrency exchanges delisting XRP including Coinbase, Binance, and Okcoin.
The latest lawsuit was filed by Florida resident Tyler Toomey. Toomey claims that he owned 135 XRP in November of 2020 and sold it a month later at a loss of 50%.
The lawsuit claims that “On numerous occasions, Defendants made public statements claiming that XRP was not a security, when in fact it is. Defendants actively concealed from investors the true nature of XRP.”
While the amount of money involved is a negligible amount. This is a class-action lawsuit which allows for others XRP investors in similar situations in Florida to join. Furthermore the lawsuit states that “Plaintiff seeks to represent a class defined as all persons or entities in the State of Florida who purchased XRP.”
Latest Legal Issues For Ripple
This is just the latest in legal issues for Ripple. As investor Vladi Zakinov filed a case in California alleging that XRP is a security controlled by Ripple. Around the same time, another investor Ryan Coffey also filed a suit in California. All alleging that XRP is a security.
Ripple has continually maintained that XRP is not a security and has vowed to fight the charges from the SEC. Ripple and the SEC are currently scheduled to meet for a pretrial conference on February 22nd. Their joint letter describing the facts of the case being due a week earlier on February 15.
