The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has submitted a lawsuit against Ripple Inc., in which it accused the company of unregistered offering of securities.
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The SEC says Ripple undertook distribution of the XRP tokens without registering offers and sales of XRP with the SEC.
"Ripple and Larsen [Ripple's inital CEO] ignored this advice and instead elected to assume the risk of initiating a large-scale distribution of XRP without registration," the regulator says.
The watchdog also says Larsen and Ripple's current Chief Executive, Brad Garlinghouse, "orchestrated unlawful" sales and "personally profited" by approximately $600 million from sales of XRP.
Earlier Garlinghouse criticized the SEC's intention to sue the company for the fact that the regulator may file a lawsuit ahead of the holiday weekend, while the SEC chairman Jay Clayton prepares to step down. Ripple's CEO says that classifying XRP as a security is like comparing oil to Exxon's stock.
He also added the company will stand up for all the crypto market and will not let the SEC bully the entire industry.
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