Ripple’s Chief Legal Officer With Comments Following Unsealing of Hinman’s Speech

Ripple’s Chief Legal Officer has put out some public comments via his Twitter account days after a judge officially unsealed the sought-after Hinman Speech to the public.

• Stuart Alderoty, the Chief Legal Officer of Ripple, has put out some comments which seem related to the case between the SEC and Ripple on his Twitter account.

The law requires SEC employees, like all federal employees, to act (and appear to act) impartially. The law asks: Would a reasonable person, knowing the facts, question the employee’s impartiality.

You know the facts.

5 CFR 2635.101(b)(14)

• The stated excerpt is Part 2635 from the Standards of Ethical Conduct for Employees of the Executive Branch and its general provisions. It says:

Employees shall endeavor to avoid any actions creating the appearance that they are violating the law or the ethical standards set forth in this part. Whether particular circumstances create an appearance that the law or these standards have been violated shall be determined from the perspective of a reasonable person with knowledge of the relevant facts.

• Alderoty has made no implications or associations.
• It’s worth noting, though, that his comments come a week after the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) released its long-awaited documents related to a speech by the former commissioner William Hinman on digital assets.
• Following this, Alderoty called for the speech to be completely removed from the Commission’s website and never again be invoked in any discussions about whether an asset should be classified as a security.